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Shakspeare and the Bible 



PARALLEL PASSAGES 

AND PASSAGES SUGGESTED BY THE BIBLE 
WITH THE 

Religious Sentiments of Shakspeare 



G. Q. COLTON 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

REV. ROBERT COLLYER 



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f^' (FEB 24 1888 r) 



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NEW YORK 

THOiMAS R. KNOX & CO. 
/ 817 Broadway 



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Copyright, 1888, by 
THOMAS R. KNOX & CO. 



TROWS 
PWINTlitO AMO M>0«W**0<MG 



TO 

MY BROTHER, 

REV. A. M. COLTON, 

AT WHOSE SUGGESTION I FIRST COMMENCED 
TO READ SHAKSPEARE, 

THIS VOLUME IS 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction, by Rev. Robert Coi lyer, . . 5 

CHAPTER I. 
Parallel Passages, . . . • .17 

CHAPTER II. 

Of Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Senti- 
ments Derived from the Bible. 

Sectio7i /. — Of the Being and Nature of God, . 7$ 

Sectio7i II. — Of the Holy Angels, and the 

Fallen, . . . . .So 

Section III, — Of GoiVs Goodness in Creation, 

AND IN THE REDEMPTION OF MaN, . . S3 

Section IV. — Of Human Life, and of *' The 

World," . . . . . S; 

Section V. — Of Sin and Repentance, . 90 

Section VI. — Of Faith and Thankfulness 

toward God, . . . . -92 



Conte7its. 



PAGE 

Section VII. — Of THE DUTY AND EFFICACY OF 

Pr.\yer, . . . . .96 

Section VIII, — Of DOMESTIC RELATIONS, . . 99 

Section IX. — Of Charity and Mercifulness, . 106 

Section X. — Of Diligence, Sobriety, and Char- 
ity, . . . . . .110 

Section XI. — Of Justice and Humanity, . • 113 

Section XII. — Of the Use and Abuse of the 

Tongue, . . . . • 115 

Section XIII. — Of Humility, Contentment, and 

Resignation, . . . . .119 

Section XI J\ — Of Holy Scripture, and the 

Christian Ministry. .... 124 

Section XV. — Of Politics — Peace and War, . 130 

Section XJ'I. — Of Death, and Day of Judgment, 134 

CHAPTER HI. 

Of the Poetry of Shakspeare as Derrtid 

from the Bible, .... 144 

Conclusion, . . . . . .161 



AN INTRODUCTION. 



The author of this book told me once 
that he was nineteen years of age when 
he first found Shakspeare and began to 
read his plays. How the first he read 
was '* Macbeth/' and he was then but 
poorly able or fitted to appreciate the 
power and beauty of it, for he had re- 
ceived only a limited common-school 
education. Blank-verse was new to him 
also, for his ear had only been trained 
to the sing - song of long, short, and 
common metr^, and so he read the first 
three acts without finding much in them 
to admire, but became interested, at 
length, in the story, and then began to 
find something rich and pregnant he 
had never found before in any book. 



An hitroduction. 



This was an incentive, of course, to 
read on, and so in no long time he read 
the whole thirty-seven plays, as we all 
did when we durst, in those days, who 
had been raised in the shadows of the 
old meeting-house and taught to believe 
that to read Shakspeare was a peril to 
the souFs health. He was soon and ea- 
sily set free from this bondage ''to fear," 
and ever since then these works of the 
mighty master have been his most in- 
timate companions and friends, holding 
his heart captive, *' entranced by their 
beauty and salt of truth/' 

So he has told me more than once, as 
we have talked these things over, and 
my wonder has been that any man so 
busy with the world, as my friend has 
been all these years, should have been 
able to attain to what one might call this 
Shakspearean ubiquity, for it seems to 
be no less. Holding the great dramas 
in his heart so long, he has them by 



An Introduction. 



heart almost, and would answer me in- 
stantly and rightly if I should wake him 
up suddenly at two o*clock in the morn- 
ing and ask him for any possible quo- 
tation which is apt to dwell on men's 
tongues. 

His knowledge of the Bible dates 
from his earliest childhood. The good 
deacon, his father, read a chapter every 
morning and evening, as the old custom 
was, which never can be more honored 
in the breach than in the observance 
when we know where and how to read 
from the holy Word ; and then the chil- 
dren had to commit a certain number of 
verses every week to memory, so that 
no book was so familiar to our author 
as the Bible when he went forth, a youth 
of sixteen, to make his own way in the 
world. 

And it is from this double intimacy 
that the book was born. In reading 
Shakspeare we have all felt a touch of 



8 A 71 Introduction, 

surprise, I suppose, who are familiar 
with the Bible also, at finding constant 
allusion to our sacred book and its 
truths. So he was surprised, for this 
was by no means what he had been 
taught to expect through his training 
and nurture in the good old Puritan 
home. 

Many passages in which the same 
thought is reproduced, and the same 
moral and religious lessons inculcated, 
are brought together here, as the read- 
er will notice, touching the being and 
nature of God, and his goodness in the 
creation and redemption of man; of our 
human life, also, and the world ; of sin 
and repentance, of faith and thankful- 
ness toward God, and the duty and 
efficacy of prayer ; of charity, and 
mercy ; diligence, sobriety, and chast- 
ity ; justice and honesty, and the use 
and abuse of the tongue ; of humility, 
contentment, and resignation ; the Holy 



An Introdtuiton. 



Scriptures, the Christian ministry, and 
church membership ; peace and war, 
death and immortality, and the judg- 
ment to come. And so he has under- 
taken this labor of love for love's sake, 
and in the hope that it will not be 
** love's labor lost,'' being himself so 
great a debtor to these books, the no- 
blest, as I think, in all the world — the 
Bible and the works of William Shak- 
speare. 

Of Shakspeare's life, as it touches 
what my friend has done, we have only 
a very slight knowledge. 

It seems to be allowed on all hands 
that he would go to the good grammar 
school at Stratford-upon-Avon until he 
was about fourteen years of age, and 
then leave his books, perhaps that he 
might help his father to make the liv- 
ing, as John Shakspeare was by that 
time finding it hard to make ends 
meet. It may be fairly presumed, also, 



lo An hitrociiiction, 

that he became familiar with the Bible 
in the school and in the church, as well 
as in his home, for the English folk 
read the sacred volume then as care- 
fully as some of our fathers did — morn- 
ing, noon, and evening ; and so in all 
these ways, and by them all, the boy 
with the wonderful head, and eyes like 
stars in a mist, would find his way into 
the deep and wonderful heart of The 
Bible, and drink the sincere milk of 
The Word, For it was the Bible era 
and ''sun up'' in England when Shak- 
speare was growing up toward his man- 
hood, as these times we live in — alas 
for the comparison — may be called the 
era of novels and newspapers. 

Fourteen years before he was born 
we can count twenty -six editions of 
the whole Bible printed in the mother 
tongue, and about twice as many of the 
New Testament. Indeed, the presses 
in London for some years did very lit- 



An Introduction, ii 

tie else about this time but print Bibles, 
and the presses in the free cities abroad 
kept time well with those at home, pour- 
ing the sacred books into England in a 
steady stream.^ 

And they were read everywhere — in 
the homes, the schools, the taverns, 
and the markets ; while an open Bible 
chained to a desk — for there were 
tramps in those days — was one of the 
enticements of the ever - open parish 
church. The Bible, in one word, was 
The Book in the Old England of that 
era, and so the boy would begin at his 
mother's knee to learn his lessons from 
the sacred pages. f 

He would hear chapters read, also, 
in the school week-days, and in the 
church Sundays, and so the Bible 

♦Encyclopaedia Britannica, new edition: Art. Bible. 

t What a mother she must have been, that rare 
Mary Arden, and how one would love to recover the 
story of her life ! 



12 A 71 httroduction. 

would be blended with the boy's life ; 
and then, when the true time came to 
use these stored treasures they would 
be poured forth as we find them in the 
great dramas, so beautifully fused with 
the fine gold of his own genius that they 
seem to take on a new lustre and reveal 
a purer worth as they touch us afresh 
from the heart of William Shakspeare. 

Milton says : '' There are no songs 
comparable to the songs of Zion, no 
orations equal to those of the Prophets, 
and no politics equal to those the 
Scriptures can teach us " — and far more 
clearly than any other man of the grand 
Puritan age, I think Milton also un- 
derstood what a matchless human gen- 
ius this was which had orone through 
the shadows of death into the eternal 
light and life when he himself was a 
child of eight years.* 

• Cromwell's name was entered on the college 
books in Cambridge on the day Shakspeare died, 



An Introduction, 13 

And I love to dream of a summer's 
day when the most beautiful boy in 
London or in England would remember 
to the end of his life how he saw the 
most wonderful man of that or any 
other age walking down the Strand or 
Eastcheap Way with Ben Jonson. It 
is only a dream : all we know is that the 
Bible and Shakspeare lay together in 
Milton's heart, and lived there as they 
live in the heart of the author of this 
volume, in which it has been his pleas- 
ant task to set forth, by instance and 
citation, how closely and sweetly they 
are blended, these rare jewels from the 
sacred book, and set in the fine gold of 
the greatest poet of all time. 

And now, one word more may well 
be said touching the author of these 
dramas. We have presumed that Shak- 

but I do not find the great name ever passed his lips, 
or the lips of Fairfax. They would say that was no 
time for Plays. 



14 A7t hitrodtiction. 

speare is the man, and that in the rev- 
erence we all pay him so gladly we 
are not bowing: before a mask behind 
which Bacon stands laughing at us, and 
at the excellent comedy he invented to 
befool the ages in persuading the poor 
player from the Midlands to assume the 
authorship, *'for a consideration." 

Shakspeare did not write the dramas, 
the wise men from the West say, and 
could not have written them any more 
than Master Justice Shallow could. 
There was only one man able to do so 
great a thing — my Lord Bacon — who 
has left ample proof of his claim to be 
the true author in the plays themselves, 
and locked the truth in a cipher also, to 
which Mr. Donnelly has now discovered 
the ponderous key. 

So the argument stands for our new 
comedy of *' Masks and Faces," which 
would compel my friend to change the 
title of his book to '' Bacon and the 



An Introduction, 15 

Bible/' if he also could consent to wear 
the cap and bells. But there is one ar- 
gument for the faith I hold with him 
that the title may well stand as it is 
printed yet awhile I have not noticed 
in the laughable discussions we find 
in the public journals just now, and it is 
of the truest weight and moment, if the 
thing could be taken seriously: the 
truth which touches us through the 
wonderful identity of the man William 
Shakspeare with the rustic life from 
which he sprung, and in which he was 
nurtured forth to his early manhood. 

Wherever we find this in the dramas 
we find the very life itself. Not some 
mere study of it from a higher plane, 
but the life of Stratford-upon-Avon and 
Shottery, and the haunts of his green 
youth — 

^^ Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, 
Haunted Hilbro', Hungry Grafton, 
Dudging Exhall, Papist Wicksford, 
Beggarly Broom, and Drunken Bedford.'* 



1 6 A 71 hitrodtiction. 

It IS true and strong, and full of the 
right flavor, as the Scottish life is in 
Robert Burns. It never could have 
been done by this London-bred lad and 
man — '' my young lord keeper," as her 
jolly Majesty loved to call him — it could 
only have been done from the life, and 
that is a cipher all men may read. 

The writer of this brief note touching 
the comical controversy springs from 
that rustic life of England. It is still 
hidden in the whole warp and woof of his 
own life, and until the question is an- 
swered well and truly touching the birth- 
right of these rustics we find in the great 
dramas, and good reason can be given 
for their creation bv a man like Bacon, it 
seems to me we need care for no other ar- 
gument. Only a man of the people could 
have touched so truly the people^s life, 
and that man was William Shakspeare. 
Robert Collver. 

New York, December 15, 1SS7. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 

PARALLEL PASSAGES. 



CHAPTER I. 

The sleep of a labouring man is 
sweet, whether he eat little or much ; 
but the abundance of the rich will not 
suffer him to sleep. — EccL v. 12. 

Weariness 
Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth 
Finds the down-pillow hard. 

— Cymbeline, Act 3, Scene 6. 



A good name is rather to be chosen 
than great riches, and loving favor rather 
than silver and gold. — Prov. xxii. i. 

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, 
Is the immediate jewel of their souls. 

— Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. 



1 8 Shakspeare a7id the Bible. 

It is more blessed to give than to 
receive. — Acts xx. 35. 

Charity — it is twice blessed ; 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 
— Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene i. 



For he that loveth another hath ful- 
filled the law. —Rom. xiii. 8. 

For charity itself fulfils the law ; 
And who can sever love from charity ? 

— Love's Labor's Lost, Act 4, Scene 3. 



And why beholdest thou the mote 
that is in thv brother's eve, but consid- 
erest not the beam that is in thine own 
eye. — Matt. vii. 3. 

You found his mote ; the king your mote did 

see ; 
But I a beam do find in each of thee. 

— Love's Labor's Lost, Act 4, Scene 3. 



This people draweth nigh unto me 
with their mouth, and honoureth me 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 19 

with their lips ; but their heart is far 
from me. — Matt. xv. 8. 

When I would pray and think, I think and pray 
To several subjects ; Heaven hath my empty 

words ; 
Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, 
Anchors on Isabel ; Heaven in my mouth, 
As if I did but only chew his name ; 
And in my heart the strong and swelling evil 
Of my conception. 

— Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 4. 



Consider the ravens ; for they neither 
sow nor reap ; which neither have store- 
house, nor barn, and God feedeth them. 
— Luke xii. 24. 

And he that doth the ravens feed, 
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, 
Be comfort to my age. 

— As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 3. 



For God shall bring every work into 
judgment, with every secret thing, 
whether it be good, or whether it be > 

evil. — EccL xii. 14. 

But 'tis not so above : 

There is no shuffling ; there the action lies 



20 SJiakspeare and the Bible. 

In his true nature ; and we ourselves com- 
pelled, 
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults 
To give in evidence. 

— Hamlet^ Act 3, Scene 3. 



At that time Jesus answered and said, 
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven 
and earth, because thou hast hid these 
things from the wise and prudent, and 
hast revealed them unto babes. — Matt 
xi. 25. 

He that of greatest works is finisher, 

Oft does them by the weakest means ; 

So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown 

When judges have been babes. 

—Airs Well That Ends Well, Act 2, Scene i. 



A man's heart deviseth his way ; but 
the Lord directeth his steps. — Prov. 
xvi. 9. 

There's a divinity that shapes our ends. 
Rough hew them how we will. 

— Hamlet, Act 5. Scene 1 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 2 1 

Are not two sparrows sold for a far- 
thine ? and one of them shall not fall on 
the ground without your father. — Matt. 
X. 29. 

There is a special providence in the fall of a 
sparrow. 

—Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2, 



But godliness with contentment Is 
great gain. — 2 Tim. vi. 6. 

Poor and content, is rich and rich enough. 

-—Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. 



A foolish son is a grief to his father 
and a bitterness to her that bare him, 
— Prov. xvii. 25. 

How sharper than a serpent's tooth 
It is to have a thankless child. 

— King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4, 



Look not thou upon the wine when 
it is red, when it giveth his color in 



^: 



^ 



22 Shakspcare and the Bible. 

the cup, when it moveth itseh" aright. 
— Prov. xxiii. 31-32. 

O thou invisible spirit of wine I if thou hast no 
name to be known by, let us call thee — devil. 

O God I that men should put an enemy in their 
mouths to steal away their brains. 

— Othello, Act 2, Scene 5. 



Therefore by the deeds of the law 
there shall on flesh be justified in his 
sight. — Rom. iii. 20. 

Consider this : 

That in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy, 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to ren- 
der 
The deeds of mercy. 

— Merchant of \'enice, Act 4, Scene i. 



There shall no evil happen to the 
just, but the wicked shall be filled with 
mischief — Prov. xii. 21. 

What stronger breastplate than a heart un- 
tainted ? 
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just ; 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 23 

And he but naked, though locked in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. 
— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 3, Scene 2. 



Put not your trust in princes, nor in 
the son of man, in whom there is no 
help. — Ps. cxlvi. 3. 

O how wretched 

Is that poor man that hangs on princes* favours. 
— Henry VIII., Act 3, Scene 2. 



He answered and said unto them, 
When it is evening ye say it will be fair 
weather ; for the sky is red. — Matt, 
xvi. 2. 

And the weary sun hath made a golden set, 
And by the bright track of his fiery car 
Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow. 

— Richard III., Act 5, Scene 3. 



But they shall sit every man under 
his vine and under his fig-tree, and none 
shall make them afraid. — Micah iv. 4. 

In her days, every man shall eat in safety 
Under his own vine, what he plants. 

— Henry VIII., Act 5, Scene 4. 



J 



24 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

But now he is dead, wherefore should 
I fast? Can I bring him back again? 
I shall go to him, but he shall not return 
to me. — 2 Sam. xii. 23. 

But to persevere 
In obstinate condolement, is a course 
Of impious stubbornness ; 'tis unmanly grief; 
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven ; 
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient ; 
An understanding simple and unschooled. 

—Hamlet, Act i, Scene 2. 



Resist the devil and he will flee from 
you. — James iv. 7. 

vA ' For use almost can change the stamp of nature. 

And master the devil with wondrous potency. 
— Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4. 



Your gold and silver is cankered ; and 
the rust of them shall be a witness 
against you, and shall eat your flesh as 
it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure 
together for the last days. — James v. 3. 

There is thy gold ; worse poison to men's souls, 
Doing more murders in this loathsome world, 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 25 

Than these poor compounds that thou may'st 

not sell, 
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene i. 



Judge not, and ye shall not be 
judged ; condemn not, and ye shall not 
be condemned ; forgive and ye shall be 
forgiven. — Luke vi. 2>1 - 

But mercy is above this sceptred sway ; 

It is enthroned in the heart of kings, 

It is an attribute to God himself ; 

And earthly power doth then show lik'st God's 

When mercy seasons justice. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene i. 



And it came to pass that the beggar 
died, and was carried by the angels into 
Abraham's bosom. — Luke xvi. 22. 

Sweet peace, conduct his sweet soul to the bosom 
Of good old Abraham. V 

— Richard II., Act 4, Scene i. 



When Pilate saw that he could pre- 
vail nothing, but that rather a tumult 



26 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

was made, he took water, and washed 
his hands before the muhitude, sayhig, 
I am innocent of the blood of this just 
person, see ye to it.- -Matt, xxvii. 24. 

Though some of you, like Pilate, wash your 

hands, 
Showing an outward pity, yet you Pilates 
Have here delivered me to my sour cross, 
And water cannot wash away your sins. 

— Richard II., Act 4, Scene i. 



And forthwith he came to Jesus, and 
said. Hail Master, and kissed him. — 
j^ Matt. xxvi. 49. 

Did they not sometimes cry, All Hail to me ? 
So Judas did to Christ ; but he, in twelve, 
Found truth in all but one. 

— Richard II., Act 4, Scene i. 



And again I say unto you, it is easier 
for a camel to go through the eye of a 
needle, than for a rich man to enter into 
the kingdom of God. — Matt. xix. 24. 

It is hard to come, as for a camel 

To thread the postern of a needle's eye. 

— Richard II., Act 5, Scene 5. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 27 

Wisdom crieth without ; she utter- 
eth her voice in the streets. — Prov. ^ 



1. 20. 



Thou didst well ; for wisdom cries in the streets, 
And no man regards it. 

Henry IV"., Part First, Act i, Scene 2. 



And thou shalt speak unto the chil- 
dren of Israel, saying, If a man die, and 
have no son, then ye shall cause his in- 
heritance to pass unto his daughter. — 
Num. xxvii. 8. 

For in the book of Numbers it is writ, 

When the son dies, let the inheritance ^ 

Descend unto the daughter. 

— Henry V., Act i. Scene 2. 



" He that findeth his life shall lose it ; 
and he that loseth his life for my sake, y\ 

shall find it. — Matt. x. 39. 

To sue to live, I find, I seek to die ; 
And, seeking death, find life. 

— Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene i. 



28 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

The wicked flee when no man pur- 
sued! ; but the righteous are bold as a 
A lion. — Prov. xxviii. i. 

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. 

—Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene i. 



That accepteth not the persons of 
princes, nor regardeth the rich more 
than the poor, for they are all the work 
of his hands. — -Job xxxiv. 19. 

Once or twice, 
V I was about to speak ; and tell him plainly, 

The self-same sun, that shines upon his court 
Hides not his visage from our cottage, but 
Looks on alike. 

— Winter's Tale, Act 4, Scene 3. 



Drowsiness shall clothe a man with 
rags. — Prov. xxiii. 21. 

Delay leads impotent and small-paced beggary. 
-Richard III., Act 4, Scene 3. 



Go to the ant thou sluggard ; con- 
X sider her ways, and be wise. — Prov. vi. 6. 

We'll set thee to school to an ant. 

—King Lear, Act 2, Scene 4. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 29 

Can any hide himself in secret places, 
that I shall not see him, saith the Lord. 
— Jer. xxiii. 24. 

Now, if these men have defeated the law, and 
outrun native punishment, though they can 
outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from 
God. 

— Henry V., Act 4, Scene i. 



The ox knoweth his owner, and the 
ass his master's crib. — Isa. i. 3. 

Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. 
— Coriolanus, Act 2, Scene i. 



Our days upon earth are a shadow. 
— Job viii. 9. 

Life's but a walking shadow. 

— Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5. 



A 



^ 



What therefore God hath joined to- 
gether, let no man put asunder. — Matt 
xix. 6. 

God forbid that I should wish them sever'd, j/ 

Whom God hath joined together. 

— Henry VI., Part Third, Act 4, Scene i. 



30 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

The Lord is merciful and gracious ; 
slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. 
X — Ps. ciii. 8. 

Open thy gate of mercy, gracious God ! 
My soul flies through these wounds to seek out 
thee. 
— Henry VI., Part Third, Act i, Scene 4. 



Hast thou found honey ? eat so much 
as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be 
filled therewith and vomit it. — Prov. 
XXV. 16. 

The sweetest honey, 

Is loathsome in its deHciousness, 

And in the taste confounds the appetite. 

— Romeo and Juhet, Act 2, Scene 6. 



Dearly beloved, avenge not your- 
selves, but rather give place unto wrath ; 
for it is written : Vengeance is mine, I 
will repay, saith the Lord. — Rom. xii. 19. 

God will be avenged for the deed ; 
Take not the quarrel from His powerful arm, 
He needs no indirect nor lawless course 
To cut off those who have offended Him. 

— Richard III., Act i, Scene 4. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 3 1 

Swear not at all. But let your com- 
munications be, Yea, yea ; Nay, nay ; 
for whatsoever is more than these, Com- 
eth of evil. — Matt. v. 34-37. 

'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth, 
But the plain vow that is vow'd true. 
—All's Well That Ends Well, Act 4, Scene 2. 



He that toucheth pitch shall be de- 
filed therewith ; and he that hath fel- 
lowship with a proud man shall be like 
unto him. — Eccl. xiii. i. 

There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often 
heard of, and is known in our land by the 
name of pitch ; this pitch, as ancient writers 
do report, doth defile ; so doth the company 
thou keepest. 

— Henry IV., Part First, Act 2, Scene 4. 



The sound of a shaken leaf shall 
chase them ; and they shall flee, as flee- 
ing from a sword ; and they shall fall 
when none pursueth. — Lev. xxvi. 36. 

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind ; 
The thief doth fear each bush an officer. 

— Henry IV., Part Third, Act 2, Scene 4. 



X 



32 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

Better is a handful with quietness, 
than both the hands full with travail 
and vexation of spirit. — Eccl. iv. 6. 

'Tis better to be lowly born, 
And range with humble livers in content, 
Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief, 
. And wear a golden sorrow. 

— Henry VIII., Act 2, Scene 3. 



Give me neither poverty nor riches ; 
feed me with food convenient for me. — 
Prov. XXX. 8. 

They are sick that surfeit with too much, as 
they that starve with nothing. It is no mean 
happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean. 
— Merchant of Venice, Act i, Scene 2. 



And Cain talked with Abel his 
brother ; and it came to pass, when 
they were in the field, that Cain rose 
up against Abel his brother and slew 
him. — Gen. iv. 8. 

How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it 
were Cain's jaw bone, that did the first murder. 
— Hamlet, Act 5, Scene i. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 2>Z 

And in Hell he lifted up his eyes, 
being in torments. — Luke xvi. 23. 

I never see thy face, but I think upon hell-fire, 
and Dives that lived in purple ; for there he 
is in his robes, burning, burning. 

— Henry IV., Part First, Act 3, Scene 3. 



But if ye will not do so, behold ye 
have sinned against the Lord ; and be 
sure your sin will find you out. — Num. 
xxxii. 23. 

For murder, though it have no tongue, will 

speak 
With most miraculous organ. 

— Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2. 



And Samson lay till midnight, and 
arose at midnight, and took the doors 
of the gate of the city, and the two 
posts, and went away with them, bar 
and all, and put them upon his shoul- 
ders, and carried them up to the top of 



x\ 



34 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

the hill that is before Hebron. — Judges 
xvi. 3. 

Samson, master, was a man of good carriage, 
great carriage ; for he carried the town gates 
on his back, hke a porter. 

— Love's Labor's Lost, Act i. Scene 2. 



He retaineth not his anger forever, 
because he deHghteth in mercy. — Micah 
vii. 18. 

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods ? 
Draw near them then in being merciful. 

— Titus Andronicus, Act i, Scene 2. 



And he cast down the pieces of silver 
in the temple, and departed, and went 
and hanged himself. — Matt, xxvii. 5. 

Well follow'd ; Judas was hanged on an elder. 
— Love's Labor's Lost, Act 5, Scene 2. 



There went in two and two unto 
Noah into the ark, the male and the 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 35 

female, as God had commanded Noah. 
— Gen. vii. 9. 

There is, sure, another flood toward, and these 
couples are coming to the ark. 

— As You Like It, Act 5, Scene 4. 



Who gave himself for us, that he 
might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto himself a peculiar people, 
zealous of good works. — Titus ii. 14. 

For Christian service and true chivalry 

As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry, 

Of the world^s ransom, blessed Mary^s Son. 

— Richard II., Act 2, Scene i. 



Even so every good tree bringeth 
forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree 
bringeth forth evil fruit. For every 
tree is known by his own fruit. — Matt, 
vii. 17, and Luke vi. 44. 

If then the tree may be known by the fruit, as 
the fruit by the tree. 

— Henry IV., Part First, Act 2, Scene 4. 



n), 



36 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

And when they were come uoto a 
place called Golgotha ; that is to say, 
a place of a skull. — Matt, xxvii. ;^'^. 

Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny, 
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd 
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's skulls. 
— Richard II., Act 2, Scene i. 



O wretched man that I am ! who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death ? 
— Rom. vii. 24. 

O wretched state ! O bosom, black as death ! 
O limed soul, that struggling to be free 
Art more engaged ! Help, angels, make assay ! 
— Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3. 



And Jacob did separate the lambs, 
and set the faces of the flocks toward 
the ringstreaked, and all the brown in 
the flock of Laban ; and he put his own 
flocks by themselves, and put them not 
unto Laban's cattle. — Gen. xxx. 40. 

But mark what Jacob did. 
When Laban and himself were compromis'd, 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 2>7 

That all the eanlings which were streak'd 
Should fall to Jacob's hire. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act i, Scene 3. 



She took of the fruit thereof, and did 
eat, and gave also unto her husband 
with her ; and he did eat. — Gen. iii. 6. 

Thou knowest in the state of innocence, Adam 
fell ; and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in 
days of villany ? 

— Henry IV., Part First, Act 3, Scene 3. 



A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou 
be in the earth. — Gen. iv. 1 2. 

With Cain go wander through the shade of night, 
And never show thy head by day nor light. 

— Richard II., Act 5, Scene 6. 



The memory of the just is blessed ; 
but the name of the wicked shall rot. — 
Prov. X. 7. 

He lives in fame, who dies in virtue's cause. 

— Titus Andronicus, Act i. Scene 2. 



o 



8 Shakspeare and the Bible. 



Beware of false prophets, which come 
to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly 
they are ravening wolves. — Matt. 7, 15. 

Now beat them hence ; why do you let them 

stay? 
Thee VW. chase hence, thou wolf in sheep's array. 
— Henry VI., Part First, Act i, Scene 3. 



No man putteth a piece of new cloth 
into an old garment ; for that which is 
put in to fill it up taketh away from the 
garment, and the rent is made worse. — 
Matt. ix. 16. 

As patches, set upon a little breach, 
Discredit more the hiding of the fault, 
Than did the fault before it was so patched ! 
— King John, Act 4, Scene 2. 



And the children of Israel did eat 
manna forty years, until they came 
to the land inhabited ; they did eat 
manna, . . . until they came unto the 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 39 

borders of the land of Canaan. — Ex. 
xvi. 35. 

Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way 
Of starved people. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene i. 



And the ill-favored and lean-fleshed 
kine did eat up the seven well-favored 
and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke. — • 
Gen. xli. 4. 

If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean 
kine are to be loved. 

— Henry IV., Part First, Act 2, Scene 4. 



And the staff of his spear was like a 
weaver's beam ; and his spear's head 
weighed six hundred sheckles of iron ; 
and one bearing a shield went before; 
him. — I Sam. xvii. 7. 

In the shape of a man, master Brook, I fear not 
Goliah with a weaver's beam. 
— Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 1. 



40 Shakspcare and the Bible. 

He that by usury and unjust gain in- 
creaseth his substance, he shall gather 
it for him that will pity the poor. — Prov. 
xxviii. 8. 

But, Clifford, tell me, didst thou not hear. 
That things ill got had ever had success ? 
— Henry IV., Part Second, Act 2, Scene 2. 



And the Lord planted a garden east- 
ward in Eden ; and there he put the 
man whom he had formed. — Gen. ii. 8. 

Not the Adam that kept the paradise, but that 
Adam that keeps the prison ; he that goes in the 
Calf's skin that was killed for the prodigal. 

— Comedy of Errors, Act 4, Scene 3. 



For which of you, intending to build 
a tower, sitteth not down first, andcount- 
eth the cost, whether he hath sufficient 
to finish it ? Lest haply, after he hath 
laid the foundation, and is not able to 
finish it, all that behold it begin to mock 
him. — Luke xiv. 28, 29. 

Like one that draws the model of a house 
Beyond his power to build it ; who, half through 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 41 

Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost 
A naked subject to the weeping clouds. 

— Henry IV., Part Second, Act 2, Scene 4. 



The rich ruleth over the poor, and 
the borrower is servant to the lender. 
— Prov. xxii. 7. M 

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be. 
For loan oft loses both itself and friend. 

— Hamlet, Act i, Scene 3. 



And he w^ent and joined himself to a cit- 
izen of that country ; and he sent him into 
his fields to feed swine. And he would 
fain have filled his belly with the husks 
that the swine did eat. — Luke xv. 15, 16. 

Shall I keep hogs, and eat husks with them ? 
What Prodigal portion have I spent, that I 
Should come to such penury ? 

— As You Like It, Act i, Scene i. 



Blessed are the peacemakers ; for 
they shall be called the children of 
God.— Matt. v. 9. 

For blessed are the peacemakers on earth. 
— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 2, Scene i. 



42 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

Who comforteth us in all our tribula- 
tions, that we may be able to comfort 
them which are in any trouble, by the 
\ comfort wherewith we ourselves are 

comforted of God. — 2 Cor. i. 4. 

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls 
Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair. 
— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 2, Scene i. 



Giving thanks always for all things 
unto God and the Father in the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. — Eph. v. 20. 

Let never day nor night unhallowed pass 
But still remember what the Lord hath done. 
— Henry VL, Part Second, Act 2, Scene i. 



Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, 
and a light unto my path. — Ps. cxix. 
105. 

And God shall be my hope, 
My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet. 
— Henry VL, Part Second, Act 2, Scene 3. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 43 

For out of the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaketh. — Matt. xii. 34. 

All offences, my lord, come from the heart. 

— Henry V., Act 4, Scene 2. 



With him is an arm of flesh ; but 
with us is the Lord our God to help 
us and to fight our battles. — 2 Chron. 
xxxii. 8. 

Take it, God, 
For it is only thine. 

To boast of this, or take the praise from God, 
Which is his only. 

— Henry V., Act 4, Scene 7. 



And Jephtha vowed a vow unto the 
Lord. Then shall it be that whatsoever 
cometh forth of the doors of my house 
to meet me, when I return in peace from 
the children of Ammon, shall surely be 
the Lord's, and I will offer it up for 
a burnt offering. . . . and behold 
his daughter came out to meet him ; 



44 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

and he did with her according 
to his vow. — Judges xi. 30, 34, 39. 

Perhaps thou wilt object my holy oath ; 
To keep that oath, were more impiety 
Than Jephtha's when he sacrificed his daughter. 
— Henry VI., Part Third, Act 5, Scene i. 



And there was a good way off from 
them a herd of many swine feeding. So 
the devils besought him, saying, If thou 
cast us out, suffer us to go away into 
the herd of swine. And he said unto 
them, Go. — Matt. viii. 30, 31, 32. 

Yes, to smell pork ; to eat of the habitation 
which your prophet, the Nazarene, comjured 
the devils into. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act i. Scene 3. 



Let every man be swift to hear, slow 
to speak, slow to wrath. — James i. 19. 

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice. 
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judg- 
ment. 
Beware of entrance to a quarrel. 

— Hamlet, Act i, Scene 3. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 45 

Who can say, I have made my heart 
clean, I am pure from my sin ? — Prov. 
XX. 9. 

Who has a breast so pure, 

But some uncleanly apprehensions, 

Keep lees and law-days, and in sessions sit 

With meditations lawful. 

— Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. 



Judge not, that ye be not judged. 
For with what judgment ye judge, ye 
shall be judged. — Matt. vii. i, 2. 

Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. 
— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 2, Scene 4. 



They are corrupt, they have done 
abominable works, there is none that 
doeth good. They are all gone aside, 
they are altogether become filthy ; there 
is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
— Ps. xiv. 1-3. 

All is oblique ; 
There's nothing level in our cursed natures, 
But direct vilhiny. 

— Timon of Athens, Act 4, Scene 3. 



46 Shakspearc and the Bible, 

Thou hast made my days as it were a 
span long. — Ps. xxxix. 5. 

How brief the life of man 

Runs his erring pilgrimage ; the 

Stretching of a span 

Buckles in his sum of age. 

— As You Like It, Act 3, Scene i. 



They will carry their riches upon the 
shoulders of vounor asses, and their 
treasures upon the bunches of camels, 
to a people that shall not profit them. 
— Isa. XXX. 6. 

If thou art rich, thou art poor ; 
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, 
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, 
And death unloads thee. 

— Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene i. 



His mischief shall return upon his own 
head, and his violent dealing shall come 
down upon his own pate. — Ps. vii. 16. 

O God, what mischief work the wicked ones. 
Heaping confusion on their own head's thereby. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 47 

I told ye all 
When we first put this stone a rolling, 
*Twould fall upon ourselves. 

— Henry VIII., Act 5, Scene 2. 



And the Lord God took the man, and 
put him into the garden of Eden to 
dress it and to keep it. — Gen. ii. 15. 

Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this gar- 
den, 

How dares thy harsh-rude tongue sound this un- 
pleasant news ? 

What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee 

To make a second fall of cursed man ? 

—Richard II., Act 3, Scene 4. 



hxiA the Lord God said unto the ser- 
pent, Because thou hast done this, thou 
art cursed above all cattle, and above 
every beast of the field. — Gen. iii. 14. 

If any wretch hath put this in your head. 
Let Heaven requite it with the serpent's curse. 
— Othello, Act 4, Scene 2. 



As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; as 
poor, yet making many rich ; as having 



48 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

nothing, yet possessing all things. — 2 
Cor. vi. 10. 

Fairest Cordelia, thou art most rich, being 
poor ; 

Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, de- 
spised. 

— King Lear, Act i, Scene i. 



So Absalom stole the hearts of the 
men of Israel. — 2 Sam. xv. 6. 

And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, 
And dressed myself in such humiUty, 
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts. 
— Henry IV., Part First, Act 3, Scene 2. 



O my son Absalom, my son, my son 
Absalom ! would God I had died for 
thee, O Absalom, my son, my son. — ■ 
2 Sam. xviii. '^i. 

O ! grandsire, grandsire ! even with all my heart 
Would I were dead so you did live again. 

— Titus Andronicus, Act 5, Scene 3. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 49 

From the sole of his foot even to the 
crown of his head there was no blem- 
ish in him. — 2 Sam. xiv. 25. 

From the crown of his head to the sole of his 

feet he is all mirth. 
— Much Ado About Nothing, Act 3, Scene 2. 



And when the queen of Sheba had 
seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the 
house that he had built. — 2 Chron. ix. 3. 

Sheba was never 
More covetous of wisdom and fair virtue. 

— Henry VIII., Act 5, Scene 4. 



That they shall drive thee from men, 
and thy dwelling- shall be with the 
beasts of the field, and they shall make 
thee to eat grass as oxen. — Dan. iv. 

I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir ; I have not 

much skill in grass. 
— AU's Well That Ends Well, Act 4, Scene 5. 



Then Herod sent forth and slew all 
the children that were in Bethlehem, 



50 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

and in all the coasts thereof, from two 
years old and under. — Matt. ii. i6. 

Your naked infants spitted upon pikes, 

Whiles the mad mothers with their howls con- 

fus'd 
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry 
At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen. 

— Henry V., Act 3, Scene 3. 



The earth shall reel to and fro like a 
drunkard, and shall be removed like a 
cottage. — Isa. xxiv. 20. 

And the flecked darkness like a drunkard reel, 
From forth day^s path, and Titan's fiery wheels. 
— Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 3. 



And there was one named Barabbas, 
which lay bound with them that had 
made insurrection with him, who had 
committed murder in the insurrection. 
— Mark xv. 7. 

I have a daughter ; 
Would any of the stock of Barabbas 
Had been her husband, rather than a Christian. 
— Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene i. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 51 

Certain of the Jews banded together, 
and bound themselves under a curse, 
saying that they would neither eat nor 
drink till they had killed Paul. — Acts 
xxiii. 12. 

Thou art a traitor — 
Off with his head ! Now, by Saint Paul I swear, 
I will not dine until I see it done. 

— Richard III., Act 3, Scene 4. 



Lest by any means when I have 
preached to others, I myself should be 
a castaway. — i Cor. ix. 27. ^ 

Why do you look on us, and shake your head, 
And call us orphans, wretches, castaways ? 

— Richard III., Act 2, Scene 2. 



Beloved, now are we the sons of God, 
and it doth not yet appear what we shall 
be. — I John iii. 2. 

Lord, we know what we are, but know not 
What wc may be. God be at your table. 

— Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5. 



52 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

For I delivered unto you first of all 
that which I also received, how that 
Christ died for our sins according to the 
Scriptures. — i Cor. xv. 3. 

Now by the death of Him who died for all. 
— Henry VI., Part Second, Act i, Scene i. 



How art thou fallen from heaven, O 
Lucifer, son of the morning. — Isa. xiv. 



12. 



And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, 
Never to hope again. 

— Henry VIIL, Act 3, Scene 2. 



Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy 
in the presence of the angels of God 
over one sinner that repenteth. — Luke 
XV. 10. 

Then there is mirth in heaven, 
When earthly things made even 
Atone together. 

— As You Like It, Act 5, Scene 4. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 53 

Pride goeth before destruction, and 
a haughty spirit before a fall. — Prov. 
xvi. 18. 

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition : 
By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, 
The image of his Maker, hope to win by't. 

— Henry VIII., Act 3, Scene 2. 



Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee 
hence, Satan ; for it is written, thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and 
Him only shalt thou serve. — Matt. iv. 
10. 

Satan, avoid ! I charge thee, tempt me not ! 
— Comedy of Errors, Act 4, Scene 3. 



' And no marvel ; for Satan himself is 
transformed into an angel of light.- — 2 
Cor. xi. 14. n 

It is written, they appear to men like angels of 
light. 

— Comedy of F.iTors, Act 4, Scone 3. 



54 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

When lust hath conceived it bringeth 
forth sin ; and sin, when it is finished 
bringeth forth death. — James i. 15. 

The time shall come when foul sin, gathering 

head, 
Shall break into corruption. 

— Henry IV., Part Second, Act 3, Scene i. 



What is man, that thou art mindful 
of him ? and the son of man that thou 
visitest him ? For thou hast made him 
a little lower than the angels, and hast 
crowned him with glory and honor. — 
Ps. viii. 4-5. 

What a piece of work is a man ! How noble in 
reason! How infinite in faculty! In form 
and moving how express and admirable ! In 
action how like an angel ! In apprehension 
how like a God ! The beauty of the world ! 
The paragon of animals ! 

— Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2. 



For thou wast slain, and hast re- 
deemed us to God by thy blood out of 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 55 

every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
and nation. — Rev. v. 9. 

I charge you, as you hope for redemption 

By Christ's dear blood, shed for our grievous 

-sins, 
That you depart and lay no hands on me. 

— Richard III., Act i. Scene 4. 



Wherefore, as by one man sin en- 
tered into the world, and death by sin ; 
and so death passed upon all men, for 
that all have sinned. . . . The 
grace of God and the gift by grace, 
which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath 
abounded unto many. — Rom. v. 12, 15. 

Alas ! alas ! 
Why, all the souls that are, were forfeit once ; 
And he that might the vantage best have took, 
Found out the remedy. 

— Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2. 



If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my 
right hand forget her cunning, — Ps. 
cxxxvii. 5. 

We therefore have great cause of thankfulness ? 



56 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

And shall forget the office of our hand 
Sooner than quittance of desert and merit. 

— Henry V., Act 2, Scene 2. 



Recompense no man evil for evil. 
Provide things honest in the sig-ht of 
all men. 

Be not overcome of evil, but over- 
come evil with good. — Rom. xii. 17, 21. 

But then I sigh, and, with a piece of scripture, 
Tell them, that God bids us do good for evil ; 
And thus I clothe my naked villany 
With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ, 
And seem a saint when most I play the devil. 
— Richard III., Act i. Scene 3. 



Let no man deceive himself. If any 
man among you seemeth to be wise in 
this world, let him become a fool, that 
he may be wise. — i Cor. iii. 18. 

I do remember a saying, The fool doth think he 
is wise, but the wise man knows he is a 
fool. 

— As You Like It, Act 5, Scene i. 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 57 

At the last it biteth like a serpent and 
stingeth like an adder, — Prov. xxiii. 32. 

I fear me, you but warm the starved snake. 
Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your 

hearts. 

— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 3, Scene i. 



Can the Ethiopian change his skin, 
or the leopard his spots? — Jer. xiii. 23. 

Give me his gage. — Lions make leopards tame ; 
Yea, but not change his spots. 

— Richard II., Act i. Scene i 



And fear not them which kill the body, 
but are not able to kill the soul. — Matt. 
X. 28. 

Thou had'st but power over his mortal body ; 
His soul thou can'st not have. 

— Richard 111., Act i. Scene 2. 



It is good for me that I have been af- 
flicted. — Ps. cxix. 71. 

Sweet arc the uses of adversity. 

—As You Like It, Act 2, Scene i. 



58 Sliakspeare and the Bible. 

The poor is hated even of his own 
neighbor. All the brethren of the poor 
do hate him ; how much more do his 
friends go far from him ? — Prov. xiv. 20 ; 
xix. 7. 

The great man down, mark you, his favorite 
flies. 

— Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2. 



A good name is better than precious 
ointment. — Eccl. vii. i. 

The purest treasure mortal times afford 

Is spotless reputation ; that away, 

Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. 

— Richard II., Act 1, Scene i. 



For I the Lord thy God am a jealous 
God, visiting the iniquity o\ the fathers 
upon the children unto the third and 
fourth generation. — Ex. xx. 5. 

Yes, truly ; for, look you, the sins of the 
fathers are to be laid upon the children. 
— Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 5. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 59 

The fathers have eaten a sour grape, 
and the children's teeth are set on edge. 
— Jer. xxxi. 29. 

And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, 
Nothing so much as mincing poetry. 

— Henry IV., Part First, Act 3, Scene i. 



Now let Daniel be called, and he will 
show the interpretation. . . . Then 
Daniel answered and said before the 
king, I will read the writing unto the 
king, and make known the interpreta- 
tion. — Daniel V. 12, 17. 

A Daniel come to judgment ! Yea, a Daniel ! 
— Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene i 



And he found a new jawbone of an 
ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, 
and slew a thousand men therewith. — 
Judges XV. 15. 

O well-knit Samson ! strong-jointed Samson ! 
—Love's Labor's Lost, Act i, Scene 2 



6o Shakspearc and the Bible. 

A virtuous woman is a crown to her 
husband — Prov. xii. 4. 

A constant woman to her husband, 
One that ne'er dreamed a joy beyond his pleas- 
ure. 

— Henry VIII. , Act 3, Scene i. 



The Lord gave, and the Lord hath 
taken away : blessed be the name of 
the Lord. — Job L 21. 

I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so pa- 
tient. 
— Henry IV., Part Second. Act i. Scene 2, 



Behold they belch out with their 
mouth ; swords are in their lips. — Ps. 
lix. 7. 

*Tis slander ; 
WTiose edge is sharper than the sword ; whose 

tongue 
Out- venoms all the worms of Nile. 

— C\-mbeline, Act 3, Scene 4. 



Therefore thou art inexcusable, O 
man, whosoever thou art that judgest : 



Shak spear e and the Bible. 6i 

for wherein thou judgest another, thou 
condemnest thyself; for thou that judg- 
est doest the same things. — Rom. ii. i. 

Go to your bosom ; 
Knock there ; and ask your heart what it doth 

know 
That's like my brother's fault ; if it confess 
A natural guiltiness such as is his, 
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue 
Against my brother's life. 

— ^Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2. 



And all the first-born of the land of 
Egypt shall die, from the first-born of 
Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, 
even unto the first-born of the maid- 
servant that is behind the mill. — Ex. 
xi. 5. 

If I cannot, I'll rail against all the first-born of 

Egypt. 
— Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5, Scene i. 



Behold, we put bits in the horses' 
mouths, that they may obey us ; and 



62 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

we turn about their whole body. — 
James iii. 3. 

For those that tame wild horses 
Pace them not in their hands to make them 

gentle, 
But stop their mouths with stubborn bits, and 

spur them, 
Till they obey the manage. 

— Henry VIII., Act 5, Scene 2. 



A father of the fatherless, and a judge 
of the widows, is God in his holy habi- 
tation. — Ps. Ixviii. 5. 

Where, then, alas ! may I complain myself? 
To God, the widow's champion and defence. 
— Richard II., Act i, Scene 2. 



Put on therefore, as the elect of God, 
holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, 
kindness, humbleness of mind, meek- 
ness, long-suffering. — i Col. iii. 12. 

Love and meekness, lord. 
Become a churchman better than ambition. 

Henry VIII., Act 5, Scene 3. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 6 



J 



Pride goeth before destruction, and 
a haughty spirit before a fall. — Prov. 
xvi. 18. 

I have no spur 
To prick the sides of my intent, but only- 
Vaulting ambition ; which o'erleaps itself, 
And falls on the other. 

— Macbeth, Act i, Scene 7. 



And I will give unto thee the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven. — Matt. xvi. 19. 

You, mistress. 
That have the office opposite to St. Peter, 
And keep the gate of hell. 

— Othello, Act 4, Scene 2. 



If it be possible, as much as lieth in 
you, live peaceably with all men. — Rom. 
xii. 18. 

If he do fear God, he must necessarily keep 
peace ; if he break the peace, he ought to en- 
ter into a quarrel with fear and trembling. 

— Much Ado About Nothing, Act 2, Scene 3. 



And he said, What hast thou done ^ 
the voice of thy brother's blood crieth 



64' Shakspeare ana the Bible. 



unto me from the ground. — Gen. iv. 

lO. 

Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries, 
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth, 
To me for vengeance, and rough chastisement. 
— Richard II., Act i, Scene i. 



If thou be the son of God, cast thy- 
self down : for it is written, He shall 
give his angels charge concerning thee. 
—Matt. iv. 6. 

The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act i. Scene 3. 



And it shall be, that thou shalt drink 
of the brook ; and I have commanded 
the ravens to feed thee there. — i Kings 
xvii. 4. 

Come on, poor babe ; 
Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ra- 
vens 
To be thy nurses. 

— Winter's Tale, Act 2, Scene 3. 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 65 

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall 
neither slumber nor sleep. — Ps. cxxi. 4. 

If heaven slumber, while their creatures want. 

They may awake their helps to comfort them. 

— Pericles, Act i, Scene 4. 



And Jesus knew their thoughts, and 
said unto them. Every kingdom divided 
against itself is brought to desolation ; 
and every city or house divided against 
itself shall not stand. — Matt. xii. 25. 

O ! if you rear this house against this house, 
It will the wofulest division prove 
That ever fell upon this cursed earth. 

— Richard II., Act 4, Scene i. 



Now the chief priests and elders and 
all the council sought false witness 
against Jesus to put him to death. — 
Matt. xxvi. 59. 

Ween you of better luck, 
I mean, in perjured witness, than your master, 
Whose minister you are, whiles here he Hved 
Upon this naughty earth. 

— Henry VIII., Act 5, Scene i. 



66 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

And as soon as he was come, he go- 
eth straightway to him, and saith. Mas- 
ter, Master ; and kissed him. — Mark 
xiv. 45. 

To say the truth, so Judas kissed his master ; 
And cried " All hail ! " when he meant all harm. 
— Henry VI., Part Third, Act 5, Scene 7. 



And he answered and said. He that 
dippeth his hand with me in the dish, 
the same shall betray me. — Matt. xxvi. 

23- 

Who can call him 
His friend that dips in the same dish ? 

— Timon of Athens, Act 3, Scene 2. 



And as they sat and did eat, Jesus 
said, Verily I say unto you, one of you 
which eateth with me shall betray me. 
—Mark xiv. 18. 

O ! then my best blood turn 
To an infected jelly ; and my name 
Be yoked with his that did detray the Best. 

— Winter's Tale, Act i, Scene 2. 



Skakspeare and the Bible. 67 

And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife 
of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that 
time. 

But Barak pursued after the chariots, 
and after the host, unto Harosheth of 
the Gentiles ; and all the hosts of Sisera 
fell upon the edge of the sword ; and 
there was not a man left. — Judges iv. 
4, 16. 

Stay, stay thy hand ! thou art an Amazon, 
And fightest with the sword of Deborah. 

— Henry VI., Part First, Act i, Scene 2. 



When I therefore was thus minded, 
did I use lightness ? or the things that 
I purpose, do I purpose according to 
the flesh, that with me there should be 
yea, yea, and nay, nay? — 2 Cor. i. 17. 

. To say ay, and no, to everything I said ! Ay and 
no, too, was no good divinity. 

— King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6. 



How much less to him that accepteth 
not the persons of princes, nor regard- 



68 Shakspeare and the Bible, 



eth the rich more than the poor? — Job 
xxxiv. 19. 

Though I speak it to you, I think the king is but 
a man, as I am ; the violet smells to him as it 
doth to me ; all his senses have but human con- 
ditions ; his ceremonies laid by, in his naked- 
ness he appears but a man. 

— Henry V., Act 4, Scene i. 



See, God is witness betwixt me and 
thee. — Gen. xxxi. 50. 

God above deal between me and thee. 

— Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. 



For the Lord is a God of judgment; 
blessed are all they that wait for him. — 
Isa. XXX. 18. 

O thou, that judgest all things, stay my thoughts; 
If my suspect be false, forgive me, God : 
For judgment only doth belong to Thee. 
— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 3, Scene 2. 



For they bind heavy burdens and 
grievous to be borne, and lay them on 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 69 

men's shoulders ; but they themselves 
will not move them with one of their 
fingers. — Matt, xxiii. 4. 

Do not as some ungracious pastors do, 
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, 
Whilst, like a puffd and reckless libertine, 
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. 
— Hamlet, Act i. Scene 3. 



Neither do men light a candle and 
put it under a bushel, but on a candle- 
stick; and it giveth light unto all that 
are in the house. — Matt. v. 15. 

How far that little candle throws his beams ! 
So shines a good deed in a naughty world. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene i. 



Thou shalt not kill. — Ex. xx. 13. 
' Jesus said, Thou shalt do no mur- 
der. — Matt. xix. 18. 

The great King of Kings 
Hath in the tabic of his law commanded 
That thou shalt do no murder. 

— Richard II., Act i, Scene 4. 



/O Shakspeare and the Bible. 

Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by 
man shall his blood be shed. — Gen. ix. 6. 

Friend, or brother, 
He forfeits his own blood, that spills another. 
— Timon of Athens, Act 3, Scene 5. 



And being forty days tempted of the 
devil. — Luke iv. 2. 

And shall I be tempted of the devil thus ? 
Ay, if the devil tempt thee to do good. 

— Richard III., Act 4, Scene 4. 



For this cause shall a man leave 
father and mother, and shall cleave to 
his wife ; and they twain shall be one 
flesh. — Matt. xix. 5. 

My mother ; father ?nd mother is man and wife, 
man and wife is one flesh. 

— Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 3. 

And he said. The Lord is my rock, 
and my fortress, and my deliverer. — 2 
Sam. xxii. 2. 

God is our fortress, in whose conquering name, 
Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks. 
— Henry VI., Part First, Act 2, Scene i. 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 7 1 

And now art thou cursed from the 
earth, which hath opened her mouth to 
receive thy brother s blood from thy 
hand. — Gen. iv. 11. 

Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath 

drunk, 
Then let the earth be drunken with our blood. 
—Henry VI., Part Third, Act 2, Scene 3. 

Though we, or an angel from heaven, 
preach any other gospel unto you than 
that we have preached unto you, let 
him be accursed. — Gal. i. 8. 

And if an angel should have come to me 

And told me, Herbert should put out mine eyes, 

I would not have believed him. 

— King John, Act 4, Scene i. 



. In the dark they dig thro* houses ; 
. they know not the light ; for 
the morning is to them even as the 
shadow of death. — Job xxiv. i6, 17. 

Come, thick night ! 
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 



/ - 



2 Shakspeare a7id the Bible, 



That my keen knife see not the wound it 

makes ; 
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the 

dark, 
To cry, Hold, hold ! 

— Macbeth, Act i. Scene 5. 



Surely thou also art one of them, 
for thy speech bewrayeth thee. — Matt. 
xxvi. "j^)' 

Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment 
And state of bodies would bewray what life 
We have led since thy exile. 

— Coriolanus, Act 5, Scene 3. 



And God made two great lights ; 
the greater light to rule the day, and 
the lesser light to rule the night. — Gen. 
i. 16. 

To name the bigger light, and how the less. 
That burn by day and night. 

— Tempest, Act i, Scene 2. 



For that which befalleth the sons of 
men befalleth beasts ; so that a man 



Shakspeare and the Bible, y^^ 

hath no pre-eminence above a beast. — 
Eccl. iii. 19. 

Allow not nature more than nature needs, 
Man's life is cheap as beast's. 

— King Lear, Act 2, Scene 4. 



And Jephtha judged Israel six years. 
Judges xii. 7. 

O Jephtha, Judge of Israel, what treasure hadst 
thou. 

— Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2. 



And there was a certain beggar 
named Lazarus, which was laid at his 
gate, full of sores, and desiring to be 
fed with the crumbs which fell from the 
rich man's table; moreover the dogs 
came and licked his sores. — Luke xvi. 
20, 21. 

As ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth. 
Where the glutton's dogs licked his sores. 
— Henry IV., Part First, Act 4, Scene 2. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF SHAKSPEARE'S RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES 
AND SENTIMENTS DERIVED FROM 
THE BIBLE. 

I AM now to enter upon that which is 
the most important, and, I trust, will be 
found the most interesting, part of my 
undertaking. I am to show how scrip- 
tural, and consequently how true and 
just, are the conceptions which Shak- 
speare entertained of the Being and At- 
tributes of God, of His general and par- 
ticular Providence, of His revelation to 
man, of our duty toward Him and tow- 
ard each other ; of human life and hu- 
man death ; of time and eternity — in 
a word, of every subject which it most 
concerns us as rational and responsible 
beings to conceive. 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 75 

Section /. 
Of the Being and Nature of God. 

To begin, then, with the titles and at- 
tributes of God. Among the names by 
which He is revealed to us in Scripture 
are these : The Lord of Hosts, the 
King Immortal, the King of Kings. 

In Part First of '' King Henry VI.'' 
the Bishop of Winchester, Cardinal 
Beaufort, thus speaks of the deceased 
King Henry V. in the presence of his 
corpse, lying in state : 

He was a king, blessed of the King of Kings, 
The battles of the Lord of Hosts he fought. 

— Act I, Scene i. 

Among the attributes of God, we have 
been taught by revelation that He knows 
all things ; that He sees all things, even 
our most secret thoughts ; that He 
neither slumbers nor sleeps ; and that 
His Providence is over all His works. 



76 Shakspeare a7id the Bible. 

Accordingly, our poet speaks of him 
as '' The All Seer/' in '' King Richard 
III./' Act 5, Scene i ; and even in 
'' Pericles, Prince of Tyre,'' where the 
characters are heathen, we read of 

Powers 
That ^ive Heaven countless eyes to view men's 

acts. 

—Act I, Scene i. 

Truly, therefore, it is said by Hele7ia 
to the King of France : 

It is not so with Him that all things knows 

As 'tis with us that square our guess with shows ; 

But most it is presumption in us, when 

The help of Heaven we count the act of men. 

—All's Well That Ends Well, Act 2, Scene i. 

Justly, too, does Hermione express 
her confidence when falsely accused : . 

If powers divine 
Behold our human actions, as they do, 
I doubt not then but innocence shall make 
False accusation blush, and tyranny 
Tremble at patience. 

— Winter's Tale, Act 3, Scene 2. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. yy 



In'* Hamlet *' we read : 

There is a special providence in the fall of a 
sparrow. 

— Act 5, Scene 2. 

And again in good old Adam, in 
'' As You Like It : " 

I have five hundred crowns, 
The thrifty hire I saved under your father ; 
Take that : and He that doth the ravens feed, 
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow. 
Be comfort to my age. 

—Act 2, Scene 3. 

The Bible teaches us that God is 
no respecter of persons ; nor regardeth 
the rich more than the poor, for they 
are all the work of His hands. 

Perdita. I was not much afeared : for once, or 

twice, 
I was about to speak, and tell him plainly, 
The self-same sun, that shines upon his court, 
Hides not his visage from our cottage, but 
Looks on alike. 

— Winter's Tale, Act 4, Scene 3. 



y?> Shakspeare and the Bible. 

The justice of God is asserted in the 
following : 

Is this your Christian counsel ? out upon ye ! 
Heaven is above all yet : there sits a Judge 
That no king can corrupt. 

—Henry VHI., Act 3, Scene i. 

And in Henry VI. : 

O Thou, that judgest all things, stay my 

thoughts ; 
If my suspect be false, forgive me, God : 
For judgment only doth belong to Thee. 

— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 3, Scene 2. 

And he who ''giveth sight to the 
blind," and '' light to him that is in mis- 
ery ; '' thus, in '' King Henry VL/' Part 
Second : 

King Henry. Now God be praised, that to be- 
lieving souls, 
Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair. 

— Act 2, Scene i. 

But of all others, the well-known 
speech oi Portia, in the ''Merchant of 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 79 

Venice," exhibits the divine attribute of 
mercy and forgiveness most clearly, and 
with the plainest reference to Holy 
Scripture : 

Portia. Then must the Jew be merciful. 
Shylock. On what compulsion must I ? tell me 

that. 
Portia. The quality of mercy is not strain'd, 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath : it is twice bless'd ; 
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes ; 
*Tis mightiest in THE MIGHTIEST ; it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown : 
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 
The attribute to awe and majesty, 
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; 
But mercy is above this sceptred sway ; 
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings ; 
// is an attribute to God Hi7nself : 
And earthly power doth then show likest God's 
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, 
Though justice be thy plea, consider this, — 
That, in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ; 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy. 

— Act 4, Scene i. 



8o Shakspeare and the Bible. 



Section IL 

Of the Holy Angels, and the 
Fallen. 

A devout invocation for the minister- 
ing help of the Holy Angels is not to be 
confounded with the impiety of address- 
ing them in prayer. The one is en- 
couraged, the other forbidden, in Holy 
Scripture. In *' Measure for Measure'* 
we find : 

Oh, you blessed ministers above, 
Keep me in patience ! 

— Act 5, Scene i. 

Or, of Hamlet, at the sight of the 
Ghost : 

Angels and ministers of grace, defend us ! 

— Act I, Scene 4. 

Are they not all ministering spirits, 
sent forth to minister for them that shall 
be heirs of salvation ? — Heb. i. 14. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 8i 

And again, when the Ghost reappears 
in Act 3 : 

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, 
You heavenly guards. 

And how pious and touching is the 
farewell of Horatio when Hamlet dies : 

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet 

prince ; 
Kn^ flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. 

— Act 5, Scene 2. 

We know from St. Luke, xv. 10, what 
is the great occasion of ''joy in the 
presence of the angels of God.'' It is 
in accordance with the same revealed 
truth that our poet sings : 

. Then is there mirth in heaven. 
When earthly things made even 
Atone together. 

— As You Like It, Act 5, Scene 4. 

It is an opinion held by tradition in 
the Church, and by many Christian 
people, that pride, or ambition, was the 



82 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

sin which led to the fall of Satan and 
his associate angels. To this opinion 
our poet refers in the well-known fare- 
well speech of Cardinal Wolsey to his 
servant Cromwell : 

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition ; 
By that sin fell the angels j how can man, then, 
The image of his Maker ^ hope to win by't. 

— King Henry VIII., Act 3, Scene 2. 

The Scripture speaks of Satan as 
**the Prince of this world,'' and ** the 
Father of lies/' In King Henry IV., 
Part First, we find : 

And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil. 
By telling truth, 

— Act 3, Scene i. 

The power which we learn from St. 
Paul that Satan possesses of *' trans- 
forming himself into an angel of light," 
2 Cor. xi. 14, is ascribed to him in 
** Hamlet:" 

The devil hath power 
To assume a pleasing shape. 

— Act 2, Scene 2. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 83 
And in " Othello : " 

When devils will their blackest sins put on, 
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows. 

— Act 2, Scene 3. 

// is written, they appear to men like angels of 
light. 

— Comedy of Errors, Act 4, Scene 3. 



Section III. 

Of God's Goodness in Creation, 
AND in the Redemption of Man. 

How comprehensive is the view 
which our poet has taken of the good- 
ness of creation in all its stages, from 
the composition of the simplest herb up 
to the crowning work of all — the soul 
of man ! And how natural the tran- 
sition from the rising of day out of 
night, of the light out of darkness, to 
the reproduction of all things out of the 



84 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

earth, to which they fall and sink into a 
grave ! How just, also, and how Script- 
ural, the representation, that though all 
things were made *' very good '' by the 
Creator, His creature, man, has the 
power of perverting them to evil, and 
abuse that power, or will keep it in 
subjection, according as he follow^s the 
guiding power of his own free will, or 
obeys the dictates of conscience and the 
spirit of grace. I allude to the scene in 
'* Romeo and Juliet,'' before Friar Lau- 
rence s cell, where the friar, entering 
with a basket, thus soliloquizes : 

The g^ray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning 

night, 
Checking the eastern clouds with streaks of light ; 
And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels ^ 
From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery wheels. 

Was our poet indebted here to that 
bold figure of the prophet Isaiah, '' The 
earth shall reel to and fro like a drunk- 
ard ? " 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 85 

St. James says : '' When lust hath 
conceived it bringeth forth sin ; and sin, 
when it is finished, bringeth forth death/' 

In ''King Henry IV.,'' Part Second, 
we read : 

The time shall come, that foul sin, gathering 

head, 
Shall break into corruption. 

One feature of the theological belief 
of Shakspeare may be learned from 
the first clause in his will : 

*' First, I commend my soul into 
the hands of God, my Creator ; hoping, 
and assuredly believing, through the 
only merits of Jesus Christ my Sav- 
iour, to be made partaker of life ever- 
lasting." 

It is in accordance with this Christian 
hope and belief that Clarence is made to 
say to the men who had been sent to 
murder him in the tower : 

I charge you, as you hope to have rcdcviption 



86 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

By Christ's dear bloody shed for our grievous 

sins, 
That you depart, and lay no hands on me. 

— Richard III., Act i,. Scene 4. 

And in King Henry IV., Part First, 
Palestine is described as 

Those holy fields, 
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, 
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nailed 
For our advantage on the bitter cross. 

The universality of the disease of sin 
is indicated in '* Measure for Measure," 
where the virtuous Isabella thus speaks 
to Angela, the wicked Lord Deputy, in 
the Dukes absence : 

Alas ! Alas ! 
Why, all the souls that are, were forfeit once ; 
And He that might the vantage best have took, 
Found otit the remedy. How would you be, 
If He, which is the top of judgment, should 
But judge you as you are ? O think on that ; 
And mercy then will breathe within your lips. 
Like man new made. — Act 2, Scene 2. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 87 

Section IV. 

Of Human Life, and of ''The World/' 

It is worthy of the position which 
Wolsey had held in church and state 
that his voice should be made the instru- 
ment, at the close of his career, to rec- 
ommend, in a few words, all the great 
points of the highest Christian morality, 
however he himself had fallen short in 
his own practice of them. I refer to the 
speech in which he gave his final charge 
to Cromwell. 

Love thyself last. Cherish those hearts that 

hate thee. 
Corruption wins not more than honesty. 
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear 

not. 
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
Thy God's, and Truth's ; then if thou fall'st, O 

Cromwell ! 
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr. 

— King Henry VIII., Act 3, Scene 2. 



88 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

Here we have duty to God, to our 
neighbor, to our country ; renunciation 
of self; love of enemies; the practical 
study of truth, of justice, of integrity, 
and of peaceableness. 

And this in regard to worldly pru- 
dence; the words oi Polonius to his son: 

Give thy thoughts no tongue, 
Nor any unproportioned thought his act. 
Be thou famihar, but by no means vulgar. 
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel. 
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice. 
Take every man's censure, but reserve thy judg- 
ment. 
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 
But not express'd in fancy ; rich, not gaudy ; 
For the apparel oft proclaims the man. 
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. 
For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 
This above all, — to thine own self be true; 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man. 

— Hamlet, Act i, Scene 3. 

This is but an echo of the words of 
St. James : 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 89 

Let every man be swift to hear, slow 
to speak, slow to wrath. — James i. 19. 

The doctrine of the depravity of hu- 
man nature is illustrated by the follow- 
ing passages : 

Who lives that's not 
Depraved or depraves ? 

All is oblique : 
There's nothing level in our cursed natures, 
But direct villany. 

— Timon of Athens, Act 4, Scene 3. 

We find also the comparison, '' life is 
a shuttle," in '* Merry Wives of Wind- 
sor,'' Act 5, Scene 2, which requires 
job (vii. 6) to interpret it : '* My days 
are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." 
And as the Psalmist complains, *' Thou 
hast made my days, as it were, a span^ 
long," so we read in *' As You Like It: "^ 

How brief the life of man ! 
The stretching of a span 
Buckles in his sum of age. 

— Act 3, Scene 2. 



90 Shakspeare a7td the Bible. 

And there is nothing in which he is 
more emphatic than in representing the 
act of suicide as a direct violation of the 
Divine law. 

O ! that the Everlasting had not fix'd 
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. 

— Hamlet, Act i, Scene 2. 

And in *' Cymbeline : " 

Against self-slaughter 
There is a prohibition so divine, 
That cravens my weak hand. 

— Act 3, Scene 4. 



Section V. 
Of Sin and Repentance. 

O ! cunning enemy, that to catch a saint, 
With saints doth bait thy hook ! most dangerous 
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on 
To sin in loving virtue. 

— Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 3. 

What stronger breastplate than a heart un- 
tainted? 
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just ; 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 91 

And he but naked, tho^ lock'd up in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. 
-—Henry VL, Part Second, Act 3, Scene 2. 

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind, 
The thief doth fear each bush an officer. 

—Henry VL, Part Third, Act 5, Scene 6. 

To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, 
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss ; 
So full of artless jealousy is guilt, 
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. 

-Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5. 

O! coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me ! 
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, 
And every tongue brings in a several tale, 
And every tale condemns me for a villain. 

—Richard HI., Act 5, Scene 3. 

The dialogue between the two mur- 
derers who had been sent to assassinate 
the Duke of Clarence is an extraordi- 
nary instance of our poet's deep ac- 
quaintance with the most secret work- 
ings of the human heart. 

\5t Murderer, What, if thy conscience come to 

thee again ? 
2// Murderer. I'll not meddle with it, it is a 



92 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

dangerous thing, it makes a man a coward ; 
a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him ; a 
man cannot swear, but it checks him ; a man 
cannot lie with his neighbor's wife, but it de- 
tects him. 

— Richard III., Act i, Scene 4. 

Foul deeds will rise. 
Though all the world o'erwhelm them, to men's 
eyes. 

— Hamlet, Act i, Scene 2. 



Section VI. 

Of Faith and Thankfulness toward 
God. 

'' Put not your trust in princes, nor in 
the son of man,*' is a scriptural precept 
which Shakspeare has not been slow to 
echo, nor has he failed to do full justice 
to the contrast with which the Scrip- 
tures so often accompany that precept, 
viz. : the duty and the satisfaction of 
placing our trust in God. 

O ! momentary grace of mortal men. 

Which we more hunt for than the grace of God ! 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 93 

Who builds his hope in air, of your fair looks, 
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast, 
Ready with every nod to tumble down 
Into the fatal bowels of the deep. 

— Richard III., Act 3, Scene 4. 

As Cardinal Wolsey '' tumbled down '' 
from the eminence to which he had been 
raised, and thereby was led, all too late, 
to exclaim : 

O ! Cromwell, Cromwell, 
Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my king, He would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies. 

— Henry VIIL, Act 3, Scene 2. 

In the scene which discovers the mur- 
der of King Duncan, in the castle of 
Macbeth, Banquo exclaims : 

Fears and scruples shake us : 
In the great hand of God I stand : and, 

thence, 
Against the undivulged pretence I fight 
Of treasonous malice. 

— Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3. 



94 Shakspearc and the Bible. 

The duty of thankfulness for God's 
goodness is here finely expressed : 

Poor soul ! God's goodness hath been great to 

thee : 
Let never day nor night unhallowed pass, 
But still remember what THE Lord hath done. 
— Henry W.^ Part First, Act 2, Scene i. 

Kv\di King Henry F., after the English 
had defeated the French in the battle of 
Agincourt, exclaims : 

O I God, thy arm was here, 
And not to us, but to thy arm alone, 
Ascribe we all. When, without stratagem, 
But in plain shock and even play of battle, 
Was ever known so great and little loss. 
On one part and on the other ? Take it, God, 
For it is only thine ! 

— Henry ^^, Act 4, Scene 8. 

The following in regard to saying 
orrace before meat is amusinor : 

o o 

\st Gent, There's not a soldier of us all that, 
in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish 
the petition well that prays for peace. 

2d Gent. I never heard anv soldier dislike it. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 95 

Lucio. I believe thee ; for I think thou never 

wast where grace was said. 
2d Gent, No ? a dozen times at least. 
\st Gent. What ? in metre ? 
Lucio, In any proportion, or in any language. 
— Measure for Measure, Act i, Scene 2. 

Or this : 

Falstaff. I pray thee, sweet wag, when thou art 
king — as, God save thy grace (majesty, I 
should say, for grace thou wilt have none) 

P. Hen. What, none ? 

Fat. No, by my troth ; not so much as will 
serve to be prologue to an egg a?id butter. 
— Henry IV., Part First, Act i, Scene 2. 

In the '' Taming of the Shrew,'' Pe- 
truchio says X.o Katharina, when supper 
is brought in : 

Come, Kate, sit down ; I know you have a 

stomach. 
Will you give thanks^ sweet Kate, or else shall 

If 

— Act 4, Scene i. 



96 Shakspeare and the Bible, 



Section VII. 

Of the Duty and Efficacy of 
Prayer. 

There are few subjects of literary con- 
templation more interesting or more 
profitable than to observe the hold 
which a great practical subject like that 
of Prayer had upon a mind like that of 
Shakspeare. 

What's in Prayer, but this two-fold force, — 
To be forestalled, ere we come to fall, 
Or pardoned, being down ? 

— Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3. 

! Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine : 
And ere my knee rise from the earth's cold face, 

1 throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to 
Thee, 

Thou setter up and plucker down of kings ! 
Beseeching Thee — if with Thy will it stands, 
That to my foes this body must be prey — 
Yet that Thy brazen gates of heaven may ope, 
And give sweet passage to my sinful soul. 

Henry VI., Part Third, Act 2, Scene 3. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 97 

Before the battle of Bosworth Field, 
in which the wicked usurper, Richard 
III., was overthrown, not only does 
Richmond exhort his followers to march 
in God's name, and bids them — 

Remember this, — 
God, and our good cause, fight upon our side : 
The prayers of holy saints and wronged souls, 
Like high-rear'd bulwarks stand before our 
faces. 

— Richard III., Act 5, Scene 3. 

but he makes in private a set prayer 
to the same effect when he retires to 
rest upon the night before the battle. 

O, Thou ! whose captain I account myself, 
Look on my forces with a gracious eye : 
Make us Thy ministers of chastisement. 
That wc may praise Thcc in Thy znciory f 
To Thee I do commend my watchful soul, 
Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes : 
Sleeping and waking, O ! defend me still ! 

— Richard III., Act 5, Scene 3. 

The Diike of Biicki^io^ha))!, \\\ 
"Henry VIII.," having been found 
guilty of treason, when led forth to ex- 



98 SJtakspeare and the Bible, 

ecution thus entreats the few that loved 
him : 

Go with me, like good angels, to my end ; 
And as the long divorce of steel falls on me, 
Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice ^ 
And lift my soul to heaven. 

— Henry VIII., Act 2, Scene i. 

Shakspeare had learned, and desired 
to teach, that it is most especially 

A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion 
To pray for them that have done scath to us. 
— Richard III., Act i, Scene 3. 

i,e., for them which despitefully use us 
(Matt. V. 44). 

There are two points in regard to the 
duty of prayer, which we should expect 
that Shakspeare would not overlook. 
One is, that our prayers should be 
real, and not lip-service, merely, and 
must proceed from the heart alone. 

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below : 
VV^ords without thoughts never to heaven go. 
— Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3. 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 99 

And again, in '' Measure for Meas- 
ure/* the duplicity is exposed of pro- 
fessing to offer up prayer while the 
heart is bent upon yielding to tempta- 
tion, in the person of the licentious Dep- 
uty, Angela. 

When I would pray, and think, I think and pray 
To several subjects : Heaven hath my empty 

words ; 
Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, 
Anchors on Isabel. 

— Act 2, Scene 4. 

Corresponding to the passage : 
*' Forasmuch as this people draw near 
to me with their mouth, and with their 
lips do honor me, but have removed 
their heart far from me/' — Isa. xxix. 13. 



Section VIIL 

Of Domestic Relations. 

We should be glad to be able to feel 
assured that the marriage of our poet. 



loo Shakspeare and the Bible. 

though it took place before he was 
nineteen (his wife being eight years 
older), did not prove an unhappy one. 
Doubtless it assisted to give him, when 
he was still young, his deep insight 
into female character ; and the draught 
of his female personages, on the whole, 
would lead us to suppose that, as he 
had been prepossessed in favor of the 
gentler sex, so the experience which 
he afterward enjoyed tended to confirm 
the first good impressions. The views 
which he has expressed of the conjugal 
union are such as do him honor ; and 
it is only fair, therefore, to conclude, 
that though he married early, he did 
not do so unadvisedly, or without a due 
regard to the sacredness of the tie, 
which it is certain he had learned in his 
maturer years to regard in its proper 
light. Thus, in *^ Twelfth Night'' the 
priest describes the marriage of Sebas- 
tian to Olivia as 



Shakspeare and the Bible, loi 

A contract of eternal bond of love, 
Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands, 
Attested by the holy close of lips. 
Strengthened by interchangement of your rings : 
And all the ceremony of this compact 
Sealed in my function. 

— Act 5, Scene i. 

In '* King Henry V./' Isabel, Queen 
of France, is made to say, at the mar- 
riage of the EngHsh king with her 
daughter Katharine : 

God, the best maker of all marriages , 
Combine your hearts in one. 

— Act 5, Scene 2. 

Nor are the words that follow less 
worthy of the subject and the occasion, 
though she who uttered them proved 
untrue : 

/ Jiave forgot i)iy fatJicr; 
I know no touch of consanguinity, 
No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me 
As the sweet Troilus. 

— Troilus and Cressi(1a, Act 4, Scene 2. 

I notice, too, that the prohibition in 
Leviticus xviii. 6 — None of you shall ap- 



102 Shakspeare a7id the Bible. 

proach (in marriage) to any that is near 
of kin to him — is brought out by Bea- 
trice in '' Much Ado About Nothing " — 



^5 



No, uncle, I'll none : Adam's sons are my 
brothers ; and truly I hold it a sin to match in 
my kindred. 

— Act 2, Scene i. 

What I am next to quote would, per- 
haps, never have been written if a pas- 
sage in St. Paul, Eph. v. 23, had not 
been running in the poet's mind. I al- 
lude to the dialogue between the Pro- 
vost and Clown in '' Measure for Meas- 
ure — 

Provost : Come hither, sirrah : Can you cut off a 
man's head ? 

Clow7i : If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can ; 
but if he be a married man, he is his ivife^s 
head, and I can never cut off a woman's head. 

— Act 4, Scene 2. 

In '' Taming of the Shrew,'' Katha- 
ri7ie, having ceased to be a shrew, un- 
der the discipline of Petruchio, gives 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 103 

the following advice to her sisters, who 
are married, but have not yet learned 
to be obedient to their husbands : 

Fye, fye ! unknit that threatening unkind brow, 
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes. 
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor: 
It blots thy beauty, as frosts do bite the meads ; 
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair 

buds ; 
And in no sense is meet, or amiable. 
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled. 
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty ; 
And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty 
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it. 
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper. 
Thy head, thy sovereign ; one that cares for thee; 
And for thy maintenance, commits his body 
To painful labor, both by sea and land ; 
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, 
While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe : 
And craves no other tribute at thy hands, 
• But love, fair looks, and true obedience, — 
Too little payment for so great a debt. 
I am asham'd that women are so simple 
To offer war, where they should kneel for peace ; 
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway, 
Where they are bound to serve, love, and obey. 
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth, 
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, 



I04 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

But that our soft conditions, and our hearts, 
Should well agree with our external parts ? 

— Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Scene 2. 

And those sublime and touching 
words of Queen Katharine to her cor- 
rupt judges in ''Henry VIII/' The li- 
centious king had fallen in love with 
Anne Bullen, one of the maids of honor, 
and was seeking authority through the 
cardinals and bishops of Rome to di- 
vorce Katharine, Katharine appeals 
to these her judges — 

Have I lived thus long — a wife, a true one? 

A woman (I dare say, without vain glory) 

Never yet branded with suspicion ? 

Have I with all my full affections, 

Still met the king ? loved him next to heaven ? 
obeyed him ? 

Been,, out of fondness, superstitious to him ? 

Almost forgot my prayers to content him ? 

And nm I thus rewarded ? 'tis not well, lords. 

Bring me a constant woman to her husband, 

One that ne*er dreamed a joy beyond his pleas- 
ure, 

And to that woman, when she has done most. 

Yet will I add an honor — a great patience. 

— Henry VIII., Act 3, Scene i. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 105 

Here is a lesson in regard to the duty 
of children toward their parents. How 
pathetically is this lesson read to Corio- 
lanus by his mother, VoluTunia : 

Say my request is unjust, 
And spurn me back : but if it be so, 
Thou art not honest and the gods will plague thee, 
That thou restrainst from me the duty which 
To a mother's part belongs. 

— Coriolanus, Act 5, Scene 3. 

In '* King Lear '' we see the deformity 
and misery of filial ingratitude in the 
strongest light : 

Ingratitude ! thou marble-hearted fiend, 

More hideous, when thou shew'st thee in a child, 

Than the sea-monster ! 

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 

To have a thankless child. 

— King Lear, Act i, Scene 4. 

In one of his last written plays, 
''Twelfth Night," our poet has left a 
warning against the step which he him- 
self had taken — yet a warning put in 
such a way, that with true deHcacy of feel- 



io6 Shakspeare a?td the Bible. 

ing, it reflects upon himself more than 
upon her who had been the object of his 
choice : 

Duke. Let still the woman take 

An elder than herself; so wears she to him, 

For, boy, however we do praise ourselves. 

Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, 

More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won. 

Than woman's are. 

Then let thy love be younger than thyself^ 

Or thy affection cannot hold the bent. 

— Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. 



Section /X, 
Of Charity and Mercifulness. 

If we are to lay a solid foundation of 
moral duty, we must first learn to enter- 
tain a just abhorrence of its opposite. 
** O ye that /ovc the Lord, /laU evil." — 
Ps. xcvii. 10. 

In '• King Richard III." C/arence thus 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 107 

speaks to one of the men who were 
sent by Gloster to murder him in the 
Tower : 

Erroneous vassal ! The great King of Kings 
Hath in the Table of His law commanded 
That thou shalt do no murder ; wilt thou, then, 
Spurn at His edict, and fulfil a man's ? 
Take heed ; for He holds vengeance in his hand, 
To hurl upon their heads that break his law. 

In the play of '' Hamlet,'' the wicked 
king, in attempting to repent, retires 
and kneels. Hamlet, entering unob- 
served, says to himself, with reference to 
the act of murder which he is contem- 
plating : 

Now I might do it, pat, now he is praying ; 
And now I'll do't ; — and so he goes to heaven : 
And so am I revenged. That would be scanned : 
A villaift kills 77iy father: a7id^for that, 
I, his sole son, do this same villain send 
To heaven. 

Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge. 
He took my father ^ross\y , full of bread; 
With all his crimes broad blown. 

— Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3. 



io8 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

The words '' full of bread " afford a 
remarkable instance of Shakspeare's 
intimate acquaintance with Holy Scrip- 
tures. See a parallel in Ezekiel xvi. 49. 

The following beautiful description 
of the compassionate and charitable 
man may well incline us to do likewise. 
King Henry IV, is speaking of his son, 
the Prince of Wales, afterward Henry 
V. : 

He is gracious if he be observed ; 
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand 
Open as day for melting charity. 

— Henry IV., Part Second, Act 4, Scene 4. 

Our poet has not only taught us 
these lessons, but the still higher doc- 
trine which he could have learnt only 
from the Word of God, viz., not '' to 
render evil for evil," but '' to overcome 
evil with good/' Thus we see in 
'^Richard III.:" 

God bids us do crood for evil. 



Skakspeare and the Bible. 109 

And again we read in '' As You 
Like It : " 

Kindness is nobler ever than revenge. 

In the '' Merchant of Venice '' we 
have these words : 

We do pray for mercy : 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to ren- 
der 
The deeds of mercy. 

— Act 4, Scer^e i. 

And if we fail to act thus, Portia, in 
the same play, adds : 

How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering 

none ? 
As thou urgest justice, be assur'd 
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou de- 

sir'st. 

Compare James ii. 13. 

And that a m2iltitude is not to be 
followed in doing evil, where could we 
find a more just, though laughable, il- 
lustration than in the words oi Fliicllen, 



no Shakspeare and the Bible. 



in the English camp, before the battle 
of Agincourt ? 

If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating 
coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we 
should also, look you, be an ass and a fool 
and a prating coxcomb : in your conscience 
now ? 

— Henry V., Act 4, Scene i. 



Section X. 

Of Diligence, Sobriety, and Chas- 
tity. 

Nature craves 
All dues be rendered to their owners : now, 
What nearer debt in all humanity 
Than wife is to the husband ? If this law 
Of nature be corrupted thro' affection 

There is a law in each well-ordered nation, 

To curb those raging appetites that are 

Most disobedient and refractory. 

If Helen, then, be wife to Sparta's king — 

As it is known she is — these 7noral laws 

Of nature and of nations speak loud 

To have her back returned : Thus to persist 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 1 1 1 

In doing wrong, extenuates not wrong, 
But makes it much more heavy. 

— 'Troilus and Cressida, Act 2, Scene 2. 

And in ''Measure for Measure'' our 
poet follows the severity of the Mosaic 
law, that those who commit the sins 
more immediately forbidden by this 
commandment are worthy of death no 
less than those who commit murder. 

It were as good 
To pardon him that hath from nature stolen 
A man already made, as to remit 
Their saucy sweetness, that do coin Heaven^s 

image 
In stamps that are forbid. 

— Act 2, Scene 4. 

In the play of '' Othello,'' a drinking 
bout has ended in a quarrel, and Othello^ 
coming in, exclaims : 

Why, how now, ho ! from whence ariseth this ? 
Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that 
Which Heaven hath forbid the Ottomites ? 
For Christian shame, put by this barbarous 
brawl, 

— Act 2, Scene 2. 



112 Shakspeare a7id the Bible. 

We are warned against idleness as 
the certain mother of evil — 

O, then we bring forth weeds 
When our quick winds lie still. 

And next resolves : 

I must from this enchanting queen break off : 
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, 
My idleness doth hatch. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act i, Scene 2. 

As idleness is the root of vice, so 
diligence, together with the desire of 
self-improvement, is the best road to 
virtue, as is taught in these comprehen- 
sive and emphatic words : 

Ignorance is the curse of God, 
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. 
— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 4, Scene 7. 

In speaking of the cultivation of the 
body, we should not forget the teaching 
in I Peter iii. 3, or in Shakspeare : 

'Tis the mind that makes the body rich ; 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 113 

And as the sun breaks through the darkest 

clouds, 
So honor peereth in the meanest habit. 

— Taming of the Shrew, Act 4, Scene 3. 



Section XL 
Of Justice and Humanity. 

We are told in '' Measure for Meas- 
ure " of a certain '' sanctimonious pirate 
that went to sea with the Ten Command- 
ments, but scraped one — the eighth — 
out of the table'' (Act i, Scene 2). ** To 
be honest, as this world goes,'' says 
Hamlet to Polonius, '' is to be one man 
picked out of ten thousand." And in 
**Timon of Athens " it is the remark of 
one of the three strangers, that *' Policy- 
sits above conscience" (Act 3, Scene 2). 

The truth illustrated by the parable 
of the Prodigal Son is thus alluded to : 

All things that are, 
Are with more spirit chased than cnjoy'd. 



114 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

How like a younker, or a prodigal^ 
The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, 
Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind ! 
How like the prodigal doth she retur7i ; 
With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged sails, 
Lean, rent, and beggafd by the strumpet wind ! 
— Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene 6. 

In '^As You Like It/' Oliver, in 
speaking to his unkind and unnatural 
brother, Orlandoy says : 

Shall I keep hogs, and eat husks with them ? 
V^\i2X prodigal portio7t have I spent that I should 
come to this penury ? 

— Act I, Scene 4. 

Against the evils of covetousness our 
poet has given us no feeble or unfre- 
quent warning. Thus, in King '' Henry 
IV.," Part Second, he bids us note : 

How quickly nature falls into revolt 
When gold becomes her object. 

— Act 4, Scene 4. 

And in '' Romeo and Juliet,'' when 
Romeo hands to the apothecary a sum 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 115 

of money in payment for the poison 
which the latter, though forbidden to 
sell it under pain of death, had allowed 
him to purchase, we read as follows : 

There is thy gold ; worse poison to men's souls, 
Doing more murders in this loathsome world, 
Than these poor compounds that thou may'st 

not sell : 
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. 

— Act 5, Scene i. 



Section XIL 

Of the Use and Abuse of the Tongue. 

*'I will speak daggers,'' says Z/^;;^/^/, 
using a metaphor which the Bible has 
made familiar to us, '* Swords are in 
their lips,'' says the Psalmist (lix.7). 
And, again, '' Who whet their tongue 
like a sword, and bend their bows to 
shoot their arrows — even bitter words " 
(Ixiv. 3). 



1 16 Shakspeare and the Bible. 
In '* Cymbeline '' we read : 

*Tis slander ; 
Whose edge is sharper than a sword ; whose 

tongue 
Out-venoms all the worms of Nile ; whose breath 
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie 
All corners of the world : kings, queens, and 

states. 
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave 
This viperous slander enters. 

— Act 3, Scene 4. 

Good name in man, and woman, dear my lord, 

Is the immediate jewel of their souls : 

Who steals my purse, steals trash ; 

But he that filches from me my good name, 

Robs me of that which not enriches him, 

And makes me poor indeed. 

— Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. 

It is in the same strain that the Duke 
of Norfolk declares, in '' King Richard 
II. : " 

The purest treasure mortal times afford 

Is spotless reputation ; that away, 

Men are but gilded loam, and painted clay. 

— Act I, Scene i. 

And in '' Measure for Measure," Isa- 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 117 

bella, in pleading with the wicked Depu- 
ty, says : 

Go to your bosom ; 
Knock there ; and ask your heart what it doth 

know 
That's like my brother's fault : if it confess 
A natural guiltiness such as is his, 
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue 
Against my brother's life. 

— Act 2, Scene 2. 

This is in keeping with what St. Paul 
has taught us, viz. : that in judging 
others the consequence is that we con- 
demn ourselves (Rom. ii. i); an idea 
which our poet has again caught, and 
admirably intensified, when he makes 
Tiffion ask : 

Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men ? 
— Timon of Athens, Act 5, Scene i. 

But charity itself may compel us to- 
administer rebuke. Thus, Hamlet tes- 
tifies, in speaking to his mother : 

I must be cruel, only to be kind. 

— Act 3, Scene 4. 



1 18 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

And how wise, accordingly, is the 
conclusion oi Beiiedick, in '* Much Ado 
About Nothing/' 

Happy are they that hear their detractions, and 
can put them to mending. 

— Act 2, Scene 3. 

The Scripture says (Luke vi. 26) : 
'' Woe unto you when all men speak 
well of you/' And how ingeniously 
has this sentiment been adopted by 
Shakspeare, in '' Timon of Athens : '' 

Timon, If I hope well, I'll never see thee more. 
Alcibiades. I never did thee harm. 
TimoH. Yea, thou spok^st well of me. 
Alcibiades. Call'st thou that harm ? 
Tinion. Men daily find it such. 

— Act 4, Scene 3. 

See, also, the dialogue between the 
Duke and the Clown, in '* Twelfth 
Night : " 

Duke. How dost thou, my good fellow ? 
Clown. Truly, sir, the better for my foes, and 
the worse for my friends. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 119 

Duke. Just the contrary ; the better for thy 
friends. 

Clown. No, sir ; the worse. 

Duke. How can that be ? 

Clown. Marry, sir, they praise me and make 
an ass of me : now my foes tell me plainly 
I am an ass ; so that by my foes, sir, I profit 
in the knowledge of myself ; and by my 
friends I am abused. 

— Act 5, Scene i. 

Let another man praise thee ; and not 
thine own mouth, — Prov. xxvii. 2. 

We wound our modesty and make foul the clear- 
ness of our deservings when of ourselves we 
publish them. 
—All's Well That Ends Well, Act i, Scene 3. 



Section XIIL 

Of Humility, Contentment, and Res- 
ignation. 

We may well believe that Shak- 
speare's own experience in life, espe- 
cially in his early days, had sufficiently 
confirmed the truth, which he might 



1 20 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

have learned from Scripture, that happi- 
ness, if it is to be expected at all in this 
world, is not to be looked for merely in 
external circumstances. 

Take heed (said our Lord) , and beware 
of covetousness ; for a man's life consist- 
eth not in the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth. — Luke xii. 15. 

In King Henry VL, Part Third, we 
read : 

id Keeper, Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert 

a king. 
K. Henry, Why, so I am in fnind, and that's 

enough. 
2d Keeper. But if thou be a king, where is thy 

crown ? 
K, He7iry, My crown is in 7ny heart, not on my 

head ; 
Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones. 
Nor to be seen ; my crown is called CONTENT ; 
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. 

—Henry VI., Part Third, Act 3, Scene i. 

Griffith speaks of Cardinal Wolsey in 
-Henry VIIL:" 

His overthrow heaped happiness upon him. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 121 

For then, and not till then, he felt himself, 
And found the blessedness of being little, 

— Act 4, Scene 2. 

And this was spoken by Anne in the 
same play : 

Verily, 
I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born, 
And range with humble livers in content, 
Than to be perked up in a glistering grief, 
And wear a golden sorrow. 

— Act 2, Scene 3. 

And in the same play we meet also 
with the rule, which we have so much 
need to bear in mind, if the pleasures of 
life are to be wisely and innocently en- 
joyed : 

Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop. 
Not to out-sport discretion. 

— Act 2, Scene 3- 

Nerissa, in the '' Merchant of Venice/' 
declares : 

It is no mean happiness to be seated in the mean. 

And the blinded Gloster, in *' King 
Lear,'' confesses : 

I stumbled when I saw. Full oft 'tis seen, 



122 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

Our means secure us; and our mere defects 
Prove our commodities* 

— Act 4, Sc€ne i. 

In "King Henry V. : " 

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man 
As modest stillness and humility. 

— Act I, Scene i. 

We cannot reasonably doubt that 
when our poet wrote, in '' King Richard 
11./' '' Pride must have a fall/' he had 
in mind that saying in the Book of Prov- 
erbs : '* Pride goeth before destruc- 
tion, and a haughty spirit before a fall/' 
The same idea occurs again in the well- 
known lines of '' Macbeth : " 

I have no spur 
To prick the sides of my intent, but only 
Vaulting ambition^ which o'erleaps itself, 
And falls on the other [side]. 

— Act I, Scene 7. 

To his mother, the widowed Queen 
Elizabeth, in her affliction for the death 
of her husband, KiJig Edward IV., the 
Alarquis of Dorset thus administers 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 123 

consolation, founded upon the well- 
known passage in the Book of Job (i. 

21): 

Comfort, dear mother ; God is much displeased 
That you take with unthankfulness his doing ; 
In common worldly things 'tis called— ungrate- 
ful, 
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt, 
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent ; 
Much more to be thus opposite with Heaven, 
For it requires the royal debt it lent you. 

—Richard IIL, Act 2, Scene 2. 

The Bible teaches that it is ''good 
to be afflicted/' So we learn, upon the 
testimony of the banished Duke^ in 
'' As You Like It : '' 

Sweet are the uses of adversity ; 

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. 

— Act 2, Scene \» 

And Leontes confesses, in *' Winter's 
Tale : " 

Affliction has a taste as sweet 
As any cordial comfort. 

—Act 5^ Scene 3. 



1 24 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

We find the following picture of do- 
mestic contentment in the words of 
Corin the shepherd, in '* As You Like 
It:'' 

Corin. Sir, I am a true laborer : I earn that I 
eat, get that I wear ; owe no man hate, envy 
no man's happiness ; glad of other men's good, 
content with my harm : and the greatest of 
my pride is, to see my ewes graze, and my 
lambs suck. 

— Act 3, Scene 2. 



Section XIV. 

Of Holy Scripture, and the Chris- 
tian Ministry. 

He strikes off hypocrisy in this fash- 
ion : 

In religion, 
What damned error, but some sober brow 
Will bless it, and approve it with a text, 
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 2. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 125 



And in '' King Henry IV.," Part 
Second, we read : 

O, who shall believe, 
But you misuse the reverence of your place ; 
Employ the countenance and grace of Heaven, 
As a false favorite doth his prince's name. 
In deeds dishonorable ? You have taken up, 
Under counterfeited zeal of God, 
The subjects of his substitute, my father ; 
And both against the peace of Heaven and him, 
Have here upswarmed them. 

— Act 4, Scene 2. 

The King, in '^ Henry VL," Part 
Second, thus rebukes his great-uncle. 
Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Win- 
chester : 

Fye, uncle Beaufort ! I have heard you preach, 
That malice was a great and grievous sin : 
And will not you maintain the thing you teach, 
. But prove a chief offender in the same ? 

Act 3, Scene i. 

Or, as St. Paul expresses it, '' Thou 
which teachest another, teachest thou 
not thyself? '' (Rom. ii. 21.) Thus, too, 
the amiable Ophelia, when she listens 



126 Shakspcare a7id the Bible, 

to the good advice of her brother, La- 
ertes, assures him : 

I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, 

As watchman to my heart. But, good my 

brother. 
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, 
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, 
Whilst, like a puffed and reckless libertine, 
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. 
And recks not his own read [lesson]. 

— Hamlet, Act i, Scene 3. 

And in the ''Merchant of \"enice " 
we read : 

// is a good divine that follows his own instruc- 
tions. 1 can easier teach twenty what were 
good to be done than be one of the twenty to 
follow mine own teaching. 

— Act I , Scene 2. 

In " Measure for Measure," the Duke, 
in the disguise of a monk, thus consoles 
ClaiidiOy who is in prison, and under 
sentence of death : 

Thy best of rest is sleep, 
And that thou oft provok'st, yet grossly fear'st 
Thy death, which is no more. 

— Act 3, Scene i. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 127 
-And Ha7nlet soliloquizes : 

To die — to sleep — 
To sleep ! perchance to dream ; ay, there's the 

rub ; 
For in that sleep of death what dreams may- 
come, 
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
Must give us pause. 

— Act 3, Scene i. 

We must not lay any great stress 
upon what passes in conversation be- 
tween two such worthies as Sir Andrew 
Ague- Cheek and Sir Toby Belch '^ yet 
the following dialogue indicates a cer- 
tain amount of popular feeling, and I 
think we may gather from it that our 
poet desired to side with those who 
could feel respect for piety and earnest- 
ness in any shape. 

Sir Toby. Possess us, possess us ; tell us some- 
thing of him. 

Maria. Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of 
Puritan. 

Sir Andrew. O, if I thought that, I'd beat him 
like a dog. 



128 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

Sir Toby, What, for being a Puritan? thy ex- 
quisite reason, dear knight. 

Sir Andrew. I have no exquisite reason for't, 
but I have reason good enough. 

— Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. 

PoloniuSy in " Hamlet/' says : 

We are oft to blame in this, — 
^7 is too much proved, — that with devotion's vis- 
age 
And pious action, we do sugar o'er 
The devil himself. 

— Act 3, Scene i. 

In passing- from the first scene of the 
Christian Hfe to the last, from baptism 
to burial, we find, in '' Cymbeline," the 
rationale of interment with the face tow- 
ard the east alluded to, and also the 
beautiful custom of strewing the grave 
with flowers described in language no 
less beautiful. The two brothers are 
engaged in burying Fidele : 

Guiderius. Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head 

to the east : 
My father hath a reason for't. 

— Act 4, Scene 2. 



Spi 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 1 29 

The *' reason'' could not properly 
have been in the mouth of a pagan. 

Arviragus, With fairest flowers, 

Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, 
• I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack 

The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose ; 
nor 

The azured hare-bell, like thy veins ; no, nor 

The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander. 

Out-sweetened not thy breath : the ruddock 
would. 

With charitable bill, bring thee all this ; 

Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are 
none. 

To winter-ground thy corse. 

[Re-eftter Belarhis, 

Belarius, Here's a few flowers ; but about mid- 
night, more : 

The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the 
night 

Are strewings fitt'st for graves. 

— Cymbeline, Act 4, Scene 2. 



130 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

Section XV. 

Of Politics — Peace and War. 

Shakspeare loved his own country 
no less than the prophets of old loved 
their chosen land, from his enthusiastic 
descriptions of it and its inhabitants : 

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, 

This fortress, built by Nature for herself. 

This happy breed of men, this little world, 

This precious stone, set in silver sea. 

Which serves it in the office of a wall, 

This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear 

land. 

— Richard II , Act 2, Scene i. 

Come the three corners of the world in arms, 
And we shall shock them : Naught shall make 

us rue 
If England to itself do rest but true. 

— King John, Act 5, Scene 7. 

The estimate of a mere worldly poli- 
tician, without faith in God, as Gover- 
nor of the World, may be gathered 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 1 3 1 

from an observation of Ha7nlet, in the 
grave-digger's scene, where, when one 
of the clowns had thrown up a skull, he 
says : 

This might be the pate of a politician, which 
this ass now overreaches ! one that would cir- 
cumvent God, might it not ? 

— Act 5, Scene i. 

The following is the description given 
by Shakspeare of the coronation of 
Queen Anne Bullen in Westminster 
Abbey : 

At length her Grace rose, and with modest paces 
Came to the altar ; where she kneel'd, and, saint- 
like. 
Cast lier fair eyes to heaven, and prayed devoutly. 
Then rose again, and bowed her to the people : 
When, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
She had all the royal makings of a queen, 
As holy oil, Edward Confessor'' s crown, 
The rod, and bird of peace, and all such em- 
blems. 
Laid nobly on her : which performed, the choir, 
With all the choicest music of the kingdom, 
Together sung Te Deum. 

— Henry VIII., Act 4, Scene i. 



132 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

Anne Bullen was the mother of the 
renowned Queen EHzabeth, and at her 
christening Archbishop Cranmer pre- 
dicts and foreshadows her long and 
illustrious reign : 

This royal infant, — Heaven still move about 

her !~ 
Though in her cradle, yet now promises 
Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, 
Which time shall bring to ripeness. She shall be 
A pattern to all princes living with her, 
And all that shall succeed : Sheba wms never 
More covetous of wisdom, and fair virtue, 
Than this pure soul shall be : all princely 

graces. 
That mould up such a mighty piece as this is, 
With all the virtues that attend the good. 
Shall still be doubled in her : truth shall nurse 

her ; 
Holy and heavenly thoughts still counsel her. 
In her days every man shall eat in safety 
Under his own vine what he plants, and sing 
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbors. 
God shall be truly known ; and those about her 
From her shall read the perfect ways of honor. 

Our children's children 
Shall see this, and bless her. 
K, Henry, Thou speakest wonders. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 133 

Cranmer, She shall be, to the happiness of Eng- 
land, 
An aged princess ; many days shall see her, 
And yet no day without a deed to crown it. 
Would I had known no more ! but she must die : 
She must ; the saints must have her : yet a vir- 
gin, 
A most unspotted lily shall she pass 
To the ground, and all the world shall mouri;i 
her. 

—Henry VIII., Act 5, Scene 4. 

That it is an unhappy thing for a 
country when its king is under age is 
a thought which might occur to many 
minds ; but that the thought should be 
expressed in words so precisely parallel 
as those which I here quote could not 
have happened without actual contact 
of the mind of one writer with the mind 
of the other : 

Woe to thee, O land, when thy king 
is a child. — Ecclesiastes x. 16. 

Woe to the land that's governed by a child. 
— Richard III., Act 2, Scene 3. 



134 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

Of the horrors of war, Shakspeare 
says : 

O war, thou son of hell, 
Whom a7igry heavens do make their mtJiister, 
Throw in the frozen bosom of our part 
Hot coals of vengeance ! 

— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 5, Scene 2. 



Section XVI. 

Of Death, and Day of Judgment. 

The lesson of the dialogue in ''Cym- 
beline " between Postlucmiis and the 
Jailer is remarkable because it pro- 
ceeds out of the mouth of a heathen : 

Jailer, Come, sir, are you ready for death ? 

Posthumus. Ready long ago. ... I am 
merrier to die than thou art to live. 

Jailer, Indeed, sir, he that sleeps, feels not the 
toothache : but a man that were to sleep your 
sleeps and a hangman to help him to bed, I 
think he would change places with his officer; 
for look you, sir, you know not which way you 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 135 

Postkuinus. Yes, indeed do I, fellow. 

Jailer. Your death has eyes in's head then ; I 
have not seen him so pictured. You must 
either be directed by some who take upon 
them to know ; or take upon yourself that 
which, I am sure, you do not know ; or jump 
the after-inquiry on your own peril : and how 
you shall speed in your journey's end, I think 
you'll never return to tell one. 

Posthumus, I tell thee, fellow, there are 7t07ie 
want eyes to direct them the way I am going , 
but such as wink^ and will not use them. 

—Act 5, Scene 4. 

If this be true in a heathen's mouth, 
how much more in a Christian's ? 

The great Earl of Warwick is made 
to speak as follows when he comes to 
die : 

Lo, now my glory smeared in dust and blood ! 
My parks, my walks, my manors that I had, 
Even now forsake me ; and of all my lands, 
Is nothing left me but my body's length! 
Why, what is pojnp, rule, reign, but earth and 

dust? 
And live we how we can, yet die 7ue must. 
—Henry VI., Part Third, Act 5, Scene 2. 

In *'The Winter's Tale," Di07i says, 



136 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

with reference to the supposed death 
of Hcrmiojie, wife of King Leontcs : 

What were more holy 
Than to rejoice, the former queen is well ? 

— Act 5, Scene i. 

Is it well with the child ? And she 
answered, // is zi^elL — 2 Kings iv. 26. 

The following quotation is long, but 
it will amply repay the reader's atten- 
tion. 

Scene — Cardinal Beauforfs Bedchamber, 
Enter KiNG HEXRV, SALISBURY, WARWICK, etc, 

K. Henry. How fares my lord ? Speak, Beau- 
fort, to thy sovereign. 

Car. If thou be'st Death, I'll give thee England's 
treasure, 

Enough to purchase such another island, 

So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain. 

IVar. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. 

Car, Bring me unto my trial when you will. 

Died he not in his bed ? W^here should he die ? 

Can I make men live, wheV they will or no ? — 

O ! torture me no more, I will confess. — 

Alive again ? then show me where he is ; 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 137 

I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him. — 
He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them. — 
Comb down his hair ; look ! look ! it stands up- 
right, 
Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul ! — 
Give me some drink ; and bid the apothecary 
Bring the strong poison that I bought of him. 
K. Henry, O thou eternal Mover of the heavens, 
Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch ! 
O, beat away the busy meddling fiend, 
That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul, 
And from his bosom purge this black despair ! 
War. See, how the pangs of death do make him 

grin. 
Sal. Disturb him not, let him pass peaceably. 
K. Henry. Peace be to his soul, if God's good 

pleasure be ! 
Lord Cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss. 
Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope. 
He dies, and makes no sign ; O God, forgive 

him ! 
War. So bad a death argues a monstrous life. 
K. Henry. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners 

all. 
Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close ; 
And let us all to meditation. 

— Henry VI., Part Second, Act 3, Scene 3. 

With this harrowing picture it will be 
some relief to compare the death-l)ed 



138 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

of another cardinal, also the victim of 
inordinate ambition — Cardinal Wolsey. 
It is Queen Katharine who asks : 

Kath. Pr'ythee, good Griffith, tell me how he 

died. 
Grif. Well, the voice goes, madam : 
For after the stout Earl Northumberland 
Arrested him at York, and brought him forward 
(As a man sorely tainted) to his answer, 
He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill, 
He could not sit his mule. 
Kath, Alas, poor man ! 
Grif. At last, with easy roads, he came to 

Leicester, 
Lodg'd in the abbey : where the reverend abbot, 
With all his convent, honorably receiv'd him ; 
To whom he gave these words, — Oh ^father abbots 
An old man, broken with the storms of state, 
Is come to lay his weary bones ajnong ye : 
Give him a little earth Jor charity I 
So went he to bed ; where eagerly his sickness 
Pursued him still ; and, three nights after this, 
About the hour of eight (which he himself 
Foretold should be his last), full of repentance, 
Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows, 
He gave his honors to the world again. 
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace. 
Kath. So may he rest ; his faults lie gently on 

him ! 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 139 
Griffith afterward adds : 

His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him : 
For then, and not till then, he felt himself, 
And found the blessedness of being little : 
And, to add greater honors to his age 
Than man could give, he died fearing God, 

— Henry VIII., Act 4, Scene 2. 

The figure found in Luke xvi. 23 is 
twice alluded to in Shakspeare : 

Bolingbroke, Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead ? 
Carlisle, As sure as I live, my lord. 
Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to 
the boso7n of good old Abraham. 

— Richard II., Act 4, Scene i. 

King Richard. The sons of Edward sleep in 
Abraham^ s bosojn. 

— Richard III., Act 4, Scene 4. 

The meeting and recognition of 
friends in heaven is alluded to in the 
following touching words of Coiistance 
on the imprisonment and death of her 
little son Arthur by King Johfi : 

Coftstance. And, father cardinal, I have heard 
you say, 



140 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

That we shall see and know our friends in 

heaven : 
If that be true, I shall see my boy again ; 
For, since the birth of Cain, the first male child, 
To him that did but yesterday suspire. 
There was not such a gracious creature born. 
But now will canker sorrow eat my bud, 
And chase the native beauty from his cheek, 
And he will look as hollow as a ghost. 
As dim and meagre as an ague's fit. 
And so he'll die ; and, rising so again, 
When I shall meet him in the court of heaven 
I shall not know him : therefore, never, never 
Must I behold my pretty Arthur more. 

— King John, Act 3, Scene 4. 

Xor is it on one occasion only that 
Shakspeare introduces this sentiment. 

Sir, fare ye well ; 
Hereafter, /;/ a better ivorld than this, 
I shall desire more love and knowledge of you. 
— As You Like It, Act i. Scene 2. 

Come, Gray ; come, \'aughn ; let us embrace — 
Farewell, until we meet again in heaven. 

— Richard III., Act 3. Scene 3. 

Of justice as often administered on 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 141 

earth, contrasted with that which will 
be exacted in heaven : 

In the corrupted currents of this world, 

Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice ; 

But 'tis not so above. 

There is no shuffling : there the action lies 

In his true nature ; and we ourselves compelled^ 

Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults ^ 

To give in evidence, 

— Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3. 

And when Hubert shows to King 
John the warrant which the latter had 
given for the murder oi Prince Arthttr, 
the King exclaims : 

Oh, when the last account 'twixt heaven and 

earth 
Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal 
Witness against us to damnation. 

— King John, Act 4, Scene 2. 

When the young Lord Clifford, in 
'' King Henry VI.,'' Part Second, sees, 
after the battle of St. Alban's, the hopes 
of his party blasted, and his father 
killed, he exclaims : 



142 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

O ! let the vile world end ! 
And \ht p7'efniscdjiames of the last day 
Knit earth and heaven together ! 
Now let the general trumpet blow his blast, 
Particularities and petty sounds 
To cease ! 

— Act 5, Scene 2. 

The incestuous marriage of the Queen, 
in ''Hamlet/' with the murderer of her 
husband and his own brother, might 
well seem to call forth from the young 
prince the utmost abhorrence which 
words can express : 

Heaven's face doth glow : 
Yea, this solidity and compound mass 
With tristful visage, as against the doom. 
Is thought-sick at the act. 

— Act 3, Scene 4. 

When Shakspeare wTOte the follow- 
ing passage, no doubt he had in his 
mind the picture drawn in 2 Peter iii. 
7-1 1 : 

Our revels now are ended : these our actors, 
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 
Are melted into air, into thin air : 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 143 

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded, 
Leave not a rack behind. 

— Tempest, Act 4, Scene i. 

The following bears direct reference 
to Scripture, found in Phil. iv. 3 ; Rev. 
XX. 15 ; xxi. 27 : 

No, Bolingbroke ; if ever I were traitor, 
My name be blotted from the Book of Life, 
And I from heaven banished, as from hence ! 
— Richard II., Act i, Scene 3. 



CHAPTER III. 

OF THE POETRY OF SHAKSPEARE AS 
DERIVED FROM THE BIBLE. 

I COME now, in the last place, to 
speak of passages in which Shakspeare 
has been indebted to Holy Writ, not 
only for poetical diction and sentiment, 
but for some of the most striking and 
sublime images which are to be found 
in his works. 

We are familiar with that simple but 
most affecting apostrophe with which 
the vision of Isaiah opens : 

*' Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O 
earth ; for the Lord hath spoken : I 
have nourished and brought up chil- 
dren, and they have rebelled against 
Me ! '' 

All creation is summoned to listen to 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 145 

the tale of undutifulness, which was 
felt by the Prophets to be without par- 
allel. It was under the influence of 
such a feeling that Hamlet exclaims, 
upon his mother's hasty marriage with 
his uncle, his father's murderer : 

Heaven and earth ! 
Must I remember ? Why, she would hang on 

him, 
As if increase of appetite had grown 

By what it fed on : and yet within a month 

Let me not think on*t. 

— Act I, Scene 2. 

And again the same feeling is aroused 
and vents itself in a similar exclamation, 
in the scene between Hamlet and his 
father's Ghost : 

Ghost. List, Hst, O Hst, 

If thou didst ever thy dear father love. 
Hamlet. O Heaven I 

Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural 
murder. 

It is a bold flight of imagination 
which represents the elements and 



146 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

heavenly bodies taking part, as allies, 
in the conflict of human warfare. Thus, 
in the grandest of all lyrical compo- 
sitions, the song of Deborah and Barak 
(Judges V. 20) : 

'' They fought from heaven ; the stars 
in their courses fought against Sisera/' 

In '' King Henry VL," Part Third, we 
read : 

*Tis better using France, than trusting France ; 
Let us be backed with Heaven, ajid with the sca^ 
Which God hath given for fence impregnable, 
And with their helps only defend ourselves : 
In them and in ourselves our safety lies. 

— Act 4, Scene 1. 

Next, in '' King Richard II.," we have 
a development of the idea suggested, 
probably, by the destruction of the host 
of Sennacherib, recorded in 2 Kings 
xix. and Isaiah xxxvii. : 

King Richard. And we are barren, and bereft 
of friends ; 



Shakspeare and the Bible, 147 

Yet know, — my master, God omnipotent, 
Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf, 
Armies of pestilence : and they shall strike 
Your children yet unborn, and unbegot. 

— Act 3, Scene 3. 

And Lady Constance, in '' King 
John,'' exclaims : 

Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjur'd 

kings ! 
A widow cries ; be husband to me, heavens ! 
Let not the hours of this ungodly day 
Wear out the day in peace. 

— Act 3, Scene i. 

And King Lear, upon the sight of his 
unnatural daughter, Goneril, says : 

Who comes here ? O Heavens, 
If you do love old men, if your sweet sway 
Allow obedience, if yourselves are old. 
Make it your cause ; send down and take 7nypart. 

— Act 2, Scene 4. 

To pass from this mustering of the 
elements of warfare to the incidents of 
war itself In that most poetic of the 
books of Scripture, the Book of Job, 



148 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

the passage which describes the war- 
horse (xxxix. 19-25), has been consid- 
ered as one of the most subHme. 

In '' King Henry IV./* Part Second, 
we read : 

With that, he gave his able horse the head, 
And, bending forward, struck his armed heels 
Against the panting sides of his poor jade 
Up to the rowel-heads ; and starting so, 
He ^eemed in running to devour the ivay^ 
Staying no longer question. 

— Act I, Scene i. 

The transformation of weapons of 
war into implements of peace is a favor- 
ite image with the inspired Prophets. 
Thus, Isaiah ii. 4 : ''They shall beat 
their swords into ploughshares, and 
their spears into pruning- hooks/* 

We see the contrary transformation 
in the prophet Joel (iii. 10) : '' Beat 
your ploughshares into swords, and 
your pruning-hooks into spears : let 
the weak say, I am strong ! *' 

Our poet has given an original turn 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 149 

to the same idea, by applying it to 
women : 

Ladies, and pale-visaged maids. 
Like Amazons, come tripping after drums : 
Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change ^ 
Their neelds to lances, and their gentle hearts 
To fierce and bloody inclination* 

—King John, Act 5, Scene 2. 

Another image of warfare which oc- 
curs more than once in the poetical 
portions of the Bible is that which de- 
scribes the weapons of war — arrows and 
the sword — when used to execute God's 
vengeance, as ** drunk with blood '' (see 
Deut. xxxii. 42). 

Shakspeare has profited by this in 
the words which he puts into the mouth 
of the Earl of Warwick when Richard 
Plantagenet had told him of his brother's 
death : 

Richard. Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth 

hath drunk. 
Warwick. Then let the earth be drunken with 

our blood. 

— Henry VI., Part Third, Act 2, Scene 3. 



150 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

The notion of the earth, with its 
products, senseless and irrational, ex- 
hibiting, or, in the poet's imagination, 
not unwilling to exhibit, greater powers 
of sympathy than are to be found among 
men, has afforded matter for several of 
Shakspeare's most effective passages : 

Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth, 
Nor with thy sweets comfort his rav'nous sense : 
But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom, 
And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way. 

Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies : 
And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, 
Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder ; 
Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch 
Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies. 
Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords : 
This earth shall have a feelings and these stones 
Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king 
Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms. 

— Richard II., Act 3, Scene 2. 

And that incomparable passage in 
*' Julius Caesar '' where Marc Antony 
appeals to the populace at the funeral of 
Ccesar : 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 151 

I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, 
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, 
To stir men's blood : I only speak right on ; 
I tell you that which you yourselves do know : 
Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor 

dumb mouths. 
And bid them speak for me. But were I Bru- 
tus, 
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony 
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue 
In every wound of Caesar, that would move 
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. 

— Act 2, Scene 2. 

The striking sublimity with which 
Paul, when brought before Festus, re- 
plied to the governor's exclamation, 
that '' he was beside himself/' by the 
simple denial, '' I am not mad, most 
noble Festus'' (Acts xxvi. 25), was not 
likely to be lost upon our poet's im- 
agination. When the Queen accuses 
Hamlet, after the exit of the Ghost, 
which he had seen, of ''ecstasy," he 
answers : 

Ecstasy ! 
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time, 



152 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

And makes as healthful music : It is not mad* 

ness 
That I have uttered. 

—Act 3, Scene 4. 

So, too, when Cardinal Pandulpk 
says to Constance, 

Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow, 

her reply is : 

Thou art not holy to belie me so ; 

I am not mad : this hair I tear is mine; 

My name is Constance ; I was Geffrey's wife ; 

Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost — 

I am not mad : I would to heaven I were! 

— King John, Act 3, Scene 4. 

In another passage, St Paul says 
(Galatians i. 8) : *' Though we, or an 
angel from heaven, preach any other 
gospel unto you than that ye have re- 
ceived, let him be accursed." 

Compare with this text what we read 
in '' King John,'' in that most affecting of 
all scenes, between Hubert diud Arthur, 
when the young prince says to him : 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 153 

An if an angel should have come to me 

And told me^ Hubert should put out mine eyes, 

I would not have believed him. 

— Act 4, Scene i. 

Of the sublime passages in the Old 
Testament, in which the attributes of 
man, or of angels, are assigned to God, 
as, for instance, where He is said to 
**ride upon the heavens," or ''fly upon 
the wings of the wind,'' or that ''His 
hand is not shortened," we might ex- 
pect to find likenesses in Shakspeare, 
and we do find them — yet so softened 
and disguised that no comparison which 
might suggest thoughts of irreverence 
is provoked by the imitation. Romeo 
thus addresses Juliet at her window : 

O ! speak again, bright angel, for thou art 
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head. 
As is a winged messenger of Heaven 
Unto the white upturned wondering eyes 
Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him, 
When he bestrides the lazy -pacing clouds, 
And sails upon the bosom of the air. 

— Act 2, Scene 2. 



1 54 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

In Isaiah lix. i we read: ** Behold, 
the Lord's hand is not shortened, that 
it cannot save." The same idea is 
found in '* Pericles : '' 

Danger, which I feared, is at Antioch, 
Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here. 

— Act I, Scene 2. 

And in xlix. 15 : ** Can a mother for- 
get her sucking child ? , . . yea, they 
may forget, yet will I remember thee ! " 

In ** King Henry \'." we read : 

Old men forget ^ yea, all shall be forgot y 
But he'll remember with advantages 
What feats he did that day. 

— Act 4, Scene 3. 

In the Book of Job we read : '' In the 
dark they dig through houses ; . . . 
they know not the light ; for the morn- 
ing is to them even as the shadow of 
death : if one know them, they are in 
the terrors of the shadow of death/' 

In *' King Richard II.'' we read : 



Shakspeare and the, Bible. 155 

Then murders, treasons, and detested sins, 
The cloak of night being plucked from off their 

backs. 
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves. 

— Act 3, Scene 2. 

And Lady Macbeth, when meditating 
the murder of King Duncan, thus so- 
Hloquizes : 

Come, thick night, 
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell. 
That my keen knife see not the vvound it makes ; 
Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the 

dark, 
To cry. Hold, hold / 

— Act I, Scene 5. 

The following may be added as speci- 
mens of less elaborate comparison, no 
less evidently drawn from the same 
sacred source. 

In ^^Much Ado About Nothing," 
Benedick says to Do7i Pedro, in answer 
to the latter's question, '' Where's the 
count ? " — 

I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a 
warren, 

— Act 2, Scene i. 



156 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

In Isaiah we read (i. 8) : '' The daugh- 
ter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vine- 
yard, as a lodge in a garden of cucMTn- 
bersy as a besieged city/' 

In Romans ix. 21 we read: *' Hath 
not the potter power over the clay, 
of the same lump to make one ves- 
sel unto honor, and another unto dis- 
honor ? " 

In '' King Henry VIIL,'' where the 
Duke of Norfolk complains of the ex- 
orbitant power of Wolsey : 

All men's honors 
Lie like one lump before him, to be fashioned 
Into what pitch he pleases. 

— Act 2, Scene 2. 

The comparison, ''as snow in har- 
vest/' occurs verbatim both in the Bible 
and in Shakspeare : 

As the cold of snow in the time of 
harvest, so is a faithful messenger to 
them that send him. — Prov. xxv. 13. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 157 

Clarence, O, do not slander him, for he is kind, 
\st Murderer, Right, as snow in harvest. — 
Come, you deceive yourself. 

— Richard III., Act i, Scene 4. 

In like manner the comparisons de- 
rived from animals, with which the 
Bible has familiarized us, are to be 
found no less in the pages of Shak- 
speare. For instance, in *' King Henry 
IV./' Part Second, we read : 

Who like a boar too savage^ doth root up 
His country s peace, 

— Act 5, Scene 2. 

derived from the Psalmist's description 
of the enemies of Jerusalem : '' The 
wild boar out of the wood doth root it 
up ; and the wild beasts of the field 
doth devour it'' (Ps. Ixxx. 13). 

So, too, *' the wolf in sheep's cloth- 
ing " of Matthew vii. 15 is reproduced 
in '' King Henry VI.," Part Second, 
Act 3, Scene i, where Qtceeii Mar- 
garet inquires concerning Gloster : 



158 Shakspeare and the Bible, 

Is he a la7nb ^ his skin is surely lent him, 
For he's inclined as are the ravenous wolves. 

The Leviathan, as described in Job 
xii., furnishes our poet with a striking 
passage in '' King Henry VI/* : 

We may as bootless spend our vain command 
Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil, 
As send precepts to the Leviathan 
To come ashore. 

— Act 3, Scene 3. 

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, 
or the leopard his spots ? — Jer. xiii. 23. 

In '' King Richard 11.,'' we read : 

King Richard. Give me his gage. — Lions make 

leopards tame. 
Norfolk, Yea, but 7iot change their spots. 

— Act I, Scene i. 

In the Bible, that which is appropri- 
ated and secured is ''sealed'' (Rom. 
XV. 28). So in Shakspeare : 

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, 
And could of men distinguish her election, 
She hath sealed thee for herself. 

— Cymbeline, Act 3, Scene 2. 



Shakspeare and the Bible. 159 

So Hamlet says to his friend Ho- 
ratio : 

A combination and a form indeed, 
Where every god did seem to set his seal, 
To give the world assurance of a man. 

— Act 3, Scene 4. 

In Matt. xi. 25 we read : '' I thank 
thee, O Father, because thou hast hid 
these things from the wise and prudent, 
and hast revealed them unto babes/* 

In - All's Well that Ends Well '' we 
find: 

He that of greatest works is finisher, 

Oft does them by the weakest minister : 

So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown, 

When judges have been babes : great floods 

have flown 
From simple sources ; and great seas have dried, 
When miracles have by the greatest been denied. 
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there 
Where most it promises ; a7id oft it hits 
Where hope is coldest, a7id despair most sits. 

— Act 2, Scene i. 

In Luke xiv. 28 we read : '' Which 
of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth 



1 60 Shakspeare and the Bible. 

not down first, and counteth the cost, 
whether he have sufficient to finish it?'' 
In '' King Henry IV./' Part Second, 
we read : 

When we mean to build, \ 

We first survey the plot, then draw the model ; 
And when we see the figure of the house, 
Then must we rate the cost of the erection j 
Which if we find outweighs ability, 
What do we then but draw anew the model 
In fewer offices ; or, at least, desist 
To build at all ? 

—Act I, Scene 3. 

In 2 Corinthians vi. 10 we read: ''As 
sorrowing, yet always rejoicing ; as 
poor, yet making many rich ; as having 
nothing, yet possessing all things/' 

Fairest Cordelia, thou art 7nost rich, being poor ; 
Most choice, forsaken ; and most loved , despised. 
— King Lear, Act i, Scene i. 



CONCLUSION. 



My task is done. In despair of pro- 
ducing anything new in regard to the 
plays of Shakspeare, I am reminded of 
a remark by the author of '' Lacon : '' 
'* Shakspeare, Butler, and Bacon have 
rendered it extremely difficult for all 
who come after them to be either wise, 
witty, or profound ; '' and he might have 
added, original. 

While the *' parallel passages" have 
been the result of my own study and re- 
search, other parts are mainly compila- 
tions and condensations from the works 
of others. I have omitted to quote 
hundreds of passages which have some 
bearing on the subject treated, and se- 
lected those only which I considered 
the most apposite. Next to the Bible, 



1 62 Conclusion, 



Shakspeare is the book of books. It is 
a mine of intellectual wealth, where 
ofiants may delve for ao^es, and then 
leave it unexplored. 

When I was a boy in the country, my 
good orthodox minister thought it very 
sinful to read a play of Shakspeare. 
Probably he never read a play himself, 
and never dreamed that the same les- 
sons he taught from the pulpit were re- 
produced in these plays, in which vice and 
virtue receive their proper reward ; and 

*• I have heard, 
That guilty creatures, sitting at a play, 
Have by the very cunning of the scene 
Been struck so to the soul, that presently 
They have proclaimed their malefactions." 

— Hamlet, .Act 2, Scene 2. 

Few sermons have been able to ac- 
complish as much as this. . 

If my little book shall ser\ e to stimu- 
late to a more thorough reading and ap- 
preciation of the works of Shakspeare, 
I shall be amply rewarded for my labor. 



Sua KSP RARE Asserts II [mself Against 

DONIVEI.LY'S 11 A CON, 



It has been asscrtc^l tluit ''tlierc is 
no linci of writing", no l)it of evidence 
in existence, to show tliat Shakspeare 
ever claimed to have writt(Mi one Hne of 
the plays or poems which bear his 
name/' The reader is referred to son- 
net cxxxvi., where he will find the fol- 
lowing : 

If thy soul clicck thee tliat I come so near, 
Swear to thy bUnd soul that I was thy Will. 
And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there ; 
Thus far for love, my love-snit, sweet, fulfil. 
Will \\\\\ fulfd the treasure of thy love, 
Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one. 
In things of great receipt with ease we prove, 
Among a number one is rcckon'd none ; 
Then in the number let me pass untold. 
Though in thy store's account 1 one must be ; 
For nothing hold me so it please thee hold 
That nothing mc, a something sweet to thee : 
Make but my name thy love and love that still 
And then thou lov'st mc — for my name is Will. 




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